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COKlfRIGHT GEPOSm 



GETTING YOUR MONEY'S 
WORTH 

A BOOK ON EXPENDITURE 



BY 



ISABEL ELY LORD 

1910-20 Director, School of Household Science 
and Arts, Pratt Institute 



m 



NEW YORK 
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY 



^ 






COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY 
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. 



PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BV 

THE OUINN a BODEN COMPANV 

RAHWAY, N. J. 

MAR -1 1922 
0)C!.A6o4854 



TO MY MOTHER 

who has always been my best teacher 
as well as my best friend 



PREFACE 

The purpose of this book is intensely practical. Erom 
long experience in the School of Household Science and 
Arts of Pratt Institute, where thousands of women have 
come for help in all phases of their homemaking prob- 
lems, and from experience with many other women, 
young and old, earning a money income or sharing in 
a marriage partnership, I have learned that one great 
obstacle in planning expenditure — in budget making — 
is lack of knowledge of the mere mechanics of it. To 
those inexperienced in financial record it looks like a 
complicated and a formidable undertaking, whereas it 
is neither if approached and carried out in the right 
way. 

The book deals primarily with making a budget and 
keeping accounts, and discusses other matters only as 
they relate closely to these. "Getting your money's 
worth" means knowledge of how to choose and how to 
buy, as well as how to apportion the income, but here, 
for the sake of brevity, only the latter aspect of it is 
discussed. The subject of cash payment versus credit, 
for example, is not touched on, although those who 
grasp the principle of budget making will have little 



vi PEEFACE 

diflSculty in deciding in a given case wliicli method is 
best. 

Miss Gertrude B. Lane, editor of the Woman's Home 
Companion, has courteously allowed me free use of the 
material in two articles written by me for that maga- 
zine and published in July and August, 1919. Miss 
Helen Hollister and Miss Elizabeth Condit, of the 
faculty of the School of Household Science and Arts 
of Pratt Institute, and Miss Sarah MacLeod and Miss 
Jessie Ann Long, formerly of that faculty, have con- 
tributed much to the development of the plan described, 
and my thanks are hereby tendered to them. 

Isabel Ely Loed. 

October, 1921. 



CHAPTER 


CONTENTS 


FAGB 




Preface ...... 


V 


I 


What a Budget Is . . . . 


1 


II 


Who Makes the Family Budget ? 


11 


III 


When and How to Make It . 


19 


IV 


The Big Items .... 


41 


V 


The Lesser Items .... 


58 


VI 


Why and What Accounts ? . 


85 


VII 


How TO Keep Accounts 


92 


VIII 


On Readjusting .... 


113 


IX 


The Income Besides Money . 


123 


X 


CONSEEVING as AN AsSET 


133 


XI 


On Inventories .... 


. 143 


XII 


The Individual Budget 


. 148 


XIII 


Training the Children . 


152 


XIV 


Using Banks . . . . .. 


. 163 


XV 


Savings and Investments 


. 185 


XVI 


The Eesult 


. 202 



GETTING YOUR MONEY'S 
WORTH 



WHAT A BUDGET IS 

A budget is the detailed plan of the use of resources, 
and the word generally used to mean money resources 
only. !N^o intelligent person thinks of beginning a piece 
of work, whether it is the building of a house, the plant- 
ing of a garden, the making of a dress or a dessert, 
without a plan. One must know what is needed and 
whether one has at hand the resources necessary — the 
ingredients, so to speak. Where money is to be spent, 
a budget is part of the plan. The builder has a budget 
for the project of the house, the dressmaker one for the 
project of the dress. In such cases they call it an "esti- 
mate," and that is no bad name for the budget as applied 
to the expenditure of the family or the individual. 

The spending of an income is of course not a definite 

project like the building of a house or the making of a 

gown. But although the result cannot be pictured in the 

same concrete way, yet there is a result to be attained. 

I 



2 GETTING YOUR MONEY^S WORTH 

What is it? The answer to this question is of great 
importance. Money — the income — is only a symbol to 
represent whatever the owner may wish to turn it into. 
The business man, the manufacturer, uses it to make 
more money, as far as his business is concerned. The 
family or the individual, on the other hand, uses it to 
make the greatest possible amount of health and happi- 
ness. The business man or the manufacturer can tell 
at the end of the year how much he has "made" in dol- 
lars and cents; the family and the individual cannot 
express either in dollars and cents or in figures of any 
kind what they have "made" by their expenditure on 
daily living. Only money saved can be stated in those 
terms, and that, important as it is, as representing 
future health and happiness, is after all a minor part 
of the year's results. 

But why, asks the average individual, is it necessary 
to have the same kind of a detailed plan as the builder 
or the business man, when the result is one that cannot 
be expressed in terms of money? The answer is that 
it is equally important in such a case because the things 
any family or individual would like to get out of their 
money resources are always so many more than their 
resources allow that only the deliberate decision in 
advance will ensure their getting what they want most. 
No one has either time enough, energy enough, or money 
enough to do and to get and to give all he or she would 



WHAT A BUDGET IS 3 

like. That we want more than we have is the very 
foundation of progress, whether what we want is ma- 
terial or spiritual. Often the man or the family gen- 
erally called rich feels even more hampered financially 
than the man or family called poor. From personal 
experience or observation we all know that as the in- 
come gets larger, there arise within us more and more 
desires and demands and what we call needs. We "get 
our money's worth" only when we consider well how 
out of what we have we can get the largest amount of 
what we want most. 

Those who have never made a budget and lived by 
it — and even, unfortunately, many of those who have — 
are apt to look on the budget as limiting the person 
who makes it. "I will not be tied by a budget and 
accounts. I am not extravagant. I don't get into debt, 
and I don't spend more than my income. I shouldn't 
enjoy spending anything if a budget limited me at every 
turn." That is the attitude of hundreds. But the 
truth of the matter is just the opposite of what they 
think. It is not the budget that sets the limits, but 
the income. The person who has all the money he or 
she wants to do everything — that person is subnormal 
or abnormal. What the budget does is to free from 
limitations as far as that can be done within the limits 
of the income. The budget is not a thing for which 
the individual or the family lives and to which they 



4 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

may be sacrificed. It is made for them; they are not 
made for it. It is their deliberate decision in advance 
as to what are the most important — to them — of the 
many things they want. Having made such deliberate 
decision they can use their money freely and with sat- 
isfaction. 

Take an example, for the sake of simplification that 
of an individual living on salary or wages. To make 
the matter concrete, let us choose a stenographer get- 
ting $30 a week. At the beginning of the year the 
stenographer decides just how much of the $1,560 an- 
nual income may rightly go for clothes. The amount 
will depend partly on the individual's other expenses, 
partly on taste. Suppose it to be $300. That amount 
the individual deliberately determines is justified in 
his or her case. Then begins the question of expendi- 
ture. If the stenographer is a man, and he longs for 
a suit made by a good tailor, but hesitates because that 
may be an extravagance in his situation, then he need 
no longer even think of extravagance. It is only a mat- 
ter of calculation and decision. If he can get the suit 
and have enough left to meet his other clothing neces- 
sities, then it becomes a question of choice. If he is 
willing to go without some of the other things he usually 
buys, he is quite free to spend his money as he will, 
within the $300. If the stenographer is a girl or woman, 
and she longs for a set of furs, she is free to get it in 



WHAT A BUDGET IS 5 

the same way. Of course both must consider first the 
demands of health and the need of suitable working 
dress, but beyond that each has a right to exercise choice. 
They may show poor judgment, from the point of view 
of onlookers, but they cannot rightly be called "ex- 
travagant" either by themselves or others. If, on the 
other hand, the stenographer has made no plan for ex- 
penditure, the temptation to custom-made clothes or a 
set of furs may, if yielded to, lead to over-expenditure 
in the clothing for the year, to a constant uneasiness as 
to the question of "extravagance'-' and perhaps, worst 
of aU, to a recklessness that says : "I don't care. I've 
got to live, and have some fun, and I'll live as I go." 

Extravagance is "a wandering beyond proper 
bounds," to take the primary definition of the Cen- 
tury Dictionary. In money matters the bounds that 
come naturally first to mind are those of the income. He 
who spends more than his money income is extravagant. 
That sounds axiomatic, yet is it always true ? Are there 
no occasions where borrowing is justified ? Or the use 
of accumulated savings? Such questions lead us back 
to the obligations implied in the word "proper." If the 
right use of the income is to procure the greatest possi- 
ble amount of health and happiness, then these con- 
siderations are the "proper bounds" beyond which we 
cannot wander without extravagance. 

Obviously, under ordinary circumstances, the family 



6 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

or the individual should live within the income, but if 
health makes a call on savings or even requires borrow- 
ing, then health, not savings, and not keeping free of 
debt, must come first. The good business man often 
borrows in order to enlarge his business operations, and 
his judgment is justified bj increased gain. So an 
individual may borrow to regain his health or for educa- 
tional opportunities, and be justified in the result. In 
both cases this is really investment, not expenditure, and 
in accurate accounting a trip South for health would 
be considered an investment, though it must in one's 
personal accounts figure as expense. Such expenditure 
is not common, but it is important to note it because it 
illustrates the principle underlying budget making and 
budget adjusting. 

Economy needs a word, by the way. Unfortunately 
to most people the word has a rather unpleasant sound, 
because to them it means going without things one wants. 
It is certain that if we cannot get with our resources 
all that we would like to get, we must go without some 
of it, but it is most regrettable to have this negative 
aspect of economy so prominent. "Economy" does not 
mean "saving," but "right use." The right use of 
part of our money leads to saving that part, but what 
we spend on recreation, food, clothing, or anything else 
is just as economically used as that saved, if we have 
been wise in our distribution of our money resources. 



WHAT A BUDGET IS 7 

It is evident that budget making must be a personal 
matter, differing for individuals or families who seem 
at first glance alike as to resources and needs. Each of 
course is bound to provide conditions that make for 
health — a place to live in that is comfortable and sani- 
tary, food that is wholesome and appetizing, clothing 
that is adequate, and some provision for the recreation 
needed by every human being. Each must for safety 
accumulate a reserve fund for emergencies — illness, 
death, failure of income, loss of any sort. But when 
even these fundamentals are interpreted by different 
individuals, differences manifest themselves at once. 
It may be possible to come to a common agreement on 
what is "sanitary" in a living place, but "comfortable" 
means very different things to different people. Per- 
sonal tastes, likes and dislikes, begin at once to play 
their part. The desire for beauty in one's surround- 
ings is general, but what seems beautiful to one is to 
another distressingly commonplace or ugly. The budget 
as an aid to the development of individual or family 
must be planned by the people who are to live under 
it on the basis of their own tastes and desires. 

The budget can never be imposed on the family or 
individual. Many with good judgment gathered from 
experience can offer worth-while advice to those who 
are beginning* to plan, but no one else can make the 
detailed decisions. We are all only too apt to try to 



8 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WOETH 

do so. Few of us are guiltless of having accused some 
one else of "extravagance" when what we meant was 
that for us personally that particular expenditure 
would have been foolish or wasteful. We all have the 
right to certain opinions on others' expenditure — such as 
that they have poor judgment, if the expenditure seems 
to us inefficient in gaining the ends they seek, or that 
their standards are low if those ends are what seem to 
us frivolous ones, such as showy dressing or indis- 
criminate entertaining. But we have no right to con- 
demn as "extravagant" any one who meets all his 
obligations. 

It is a commonplace that in America we suffer from 
too much uniformity in the practices of everyday life. 
We are held too rigidly by little conventions, and what 
we gain by doing as our neighbors do is sometimes small 
compensation for what we lose in individual expression. 
The deliberate planning of the budget should help us 
in many minor ways — not always the spending of 
money — ^to do what we really want to do instead of 
what is expected of us. The family that has faced the 
choice of having a houseworker regularly employed or 
of giving good music lessons to a talented child, and 
has made a deliberate decision for the musical education, 
ceases to be apologetic about not having a maid to open 
the door. 

The greatest importance of the budget is, indeed, that 



WHAT A BUDGET IS 9 

it makes one consider values. For the sake of simplicity, 
and because the family budget is always o± greater 
importance socially than can be that of an individual, 
this book will speak in the terms of the family, giving 
special consideration to the budget of the individual in 
Chapter XII. The family, then, by adopting a budget 
must acknowledge frankly its desires and hopes and 
then arrange these in the order of their importance. In 
other words, the family must put itself on record as to 
its ideals. Any person who does this at stated inter- 
vals makes a better choice than when he or she leaves 
ideals in the vague realm of some-day-or-other. Indeed, 
the greatest value of the budget to individual or family 
is that it forces them to make clear their own ideals 
and to decide how far those ideals are to be regarded in. 
daily living. Given the resources available and pro- 
viding out of them the necessities, what is the order of 
importance of the other things the family income can 
obtain ? 

There is a fairy story or folk tale common to many 
lands in which three wishes are unexpectedly granted 
to some individual. A man is told that he may have 
anything he likes in the world, but he may wish only 
three times. Invariably he has to use the third wish to 
undo the evil brought on him by the first two. One 
version tells of a peasant who thought first of something 
to eat, so wished for a big black pudding, the height of 



10 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

his gastronomic desires. The pudding appeared, but 
in a few moments, his wife in a fit of temper cried: "I 
wish the pudding would stick to your nose !" Which the 
large black pudding promptly did. Then no other wish 
was possible than the separation of that pudding and 
that nose, since gold and lands and honor could hardly 
compensate for such a burden. So the pudding came off, 
the three wishes were used, and the partially damaged 
pudding was the only result. It is not only folk humor 
that told that tale, but also folk wisdom. And the moral 
is as good to-day as it was when the cave man began 
to develop desires. 

So the question for the family is what kind of happi- 
ness they want — out of what they choose to get it. The 
wishes allowed by the budget are not unlimited in ex- 
tent, but they are more than three in number, and, best 
of all, they may be changed as often as the vision 
broadens and as the family learns better the art of 
wishing. 



II 

WHO MAKES THE FAMILY BUDGET? 

The family is a cooperative group at the foundation 
of our social structure. There must be kinship in this 
group. When the kinship is of mind and spirit only, 
as with a group of friends, the family may be a real 
one, and have distinct social value, but the word "fam- 
ily" in ordinary usage implies a relationship in blood, 
and implies also some head or heads of the group. The 
normal family has father, mother and child or chil- 
dren. If the father dies, if there are no children or 
if the latter grow up and leave the family home to 
establish homes of their own, those left do not cease 
to be a family, but are none the less, in any ordinary 
usage, an incomplete family. The vast majority of 
families include parents and children, and in this vast 
majority many contain other relations, such as grand- 
parents, uncles, aunts or cousins. 

This cooperative group has many interests in com- 
mon, however many additional interests there may be. 
Aside from the common needs of food, clothing, shelter, 
recreation, there is need in the family life for a kind of 

cooperation that will make for harmony in the home 

11 



12 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

and for the greatest freedom of individual development 
that is compatible with such harmony. The common 
interests must be cared for first, then individual needs 
considered. Within the group, each contributes accord- 
ing to his ability, and receives his proportionate share 
according to his needs. 

It is not uncommon to hear the household — that is, 
the family — spoken of as a ''business," and the mother 
of the family, who directs the detailed expenditure for 
common needs, spoken of as the "business manager." 
Some even go so far as to say that she should have a 
salary for her work, like any other business manager. 
Any such conception of course ignores the real nature 
of family life. There is a business side to it, granted, 
but it is not a business in the same sense that a money- 
making organization is a business. Its purpose is differ- 
ent, and its attitude toward money must be different 
also. And the wife and mother is not a paid worker, 
engaged for life, but something far finer and bigger 
than that. If Mother is paid a salary, then Father is 
her employer, and he pays her for looking out for him- 
self and the children. It is true that such a relation- 
ship is an improvement on the old one of Mother as 
financially dependent on Father, who may occasionally 
graciously grant her a little money to spend for her- 
self, or may not. But it is far from the ideal of the 
cooperative group. 



WHO MAKES THE FAMILY BUDGET? 13 

Marriage is a partnership, in the interests of the 
whole family group. The husband and wife are the 
partners, and full partners, the children apprentices, 
learning how to live in such a partnership themselves, 
and as they grow older within the home they may 
even become junior partners. In the usual family the 
father gives his working hours to earning a money in- 
come, the mother hers to directing all the activities of 
the household, including the spending of that part of 
the income used for the family living. The income, 
whether in money or in labor, belongs equally to both 
husband and wife, in trust for the family. The wife 
has just as much "right" to the money income as has 
the husband — and no more right. 

There are still belated households where the wife 
has no clear idea of the family income and can spend 
only what she can get out of her husband in irregular 
payments of irregular amounts. In many of those 
households charge accounts at shops of different types 
give the wife a chance to get things for herself that 
she could never get by paying cash, since she never 
has it in any quantity. This system is not only deeply 
humiliating to the woman and demoralizing to the 
children, but wasteful. There are many other house- 
holds where the wife receives a regular allowance for 
maintaining the house, but unfortunately in too many 
cases she must get from this allowance all that she needs 



U GETTING YOUE MONEY^S WOETH 

for herself also. The conscientious housewife in such 
a situation invariably fails to get her due share, and at 
the same time frequently suffers qualms of doubt when- 
ever she spends anything whatever on herself. 

The next step is a series of allowances — one for the 
household, one for the wife, one for the children, and 
perhaps one for the automobile. This is fairly common 
now, and is a just arrangement as far as the working 
of it goes. If husband and wife decide together what 
these allowances are to be, the wife is neither humiliated 
nor handicapped. Yet this may be in full swing where 
the husband still considers that he is the sole source of 
"support," and that he is (with glad generosity, in 
most cases) giving his money for the family use. 

In practice the working out may be almost the same 
when the partnership idea is accepted — almost, not 
quite. If marriage is a full partnership, then husband 
and wife are contributing alike to the family resources. 
They decide together on the best use of the money, 
assign the direction of expenditure of each division as 
seems best, but always keep a general knowledge of 
all the headings. Usually the wife takes charge of the 
amount for household expenses — except that for some 
occult reason many men seem to like to pay the coal 
bills — and for clothing for herself and the children; 
the husband of the sum for his own expenses and of 



WHO MAKES THE FAMILY BUDGET? 15 

the investment of the money to be saved. It is fre- 
quent to turn over to the wife all the responsibility for 
Gifts (personal or for the public good), Recreation, 
Entertainment, Education, but all these should mean 
cooperation in spending as well as in budgeting. It is 
easy for a man to say : "I can't bother with those things. 
I have my business to attend to, and I turn everything 
else over to my wife." That is shirking part of the 
partnership work, and certainly the man who refuses his 
share of responsibility in the matter has no right to 
criticize his wife when he does not like the way she 
does the work single-handed. 

There is a question regarding the surplus that can 
be invested. In a full partnership, after all the needs 
of the business are provided, the surplus profit is di- 
vided equally between the partners, each to do as he 
chooses with his share. This method is followed in 
many a modern family, especially where the wife has 
earned her own income before marriage and has learned 
independently how to handle money. A special sav- 
ings fund may be set aside first to provide for the educa- 
tion of the children, or to cumulate for some family 
purpose like the purchase of a home, but then the rest 
is divided, and the wife is as free to use hers in her 
own way as the husband is to use his. Such an arrange- 
ment is only possible where both partners realize to the 



16 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

full the meaning of their partnership, but the oftener 
it is tried successfully, the faster will be the growth of 
a full conception of partnership in marriage. 

It is true that most women have not experience in 
investing money, and that they do not get experience 
of that kind in their daily work as homemakers. But 
an intelligent woman can learn to invest money as well 
as an intelligent man. Thousands of wives save their 
husbands from foolish schemes by "influence;" why 
not recognize that they are equal to their own responsi- 
bilities ? And if a woman loses money in Wall Street 
or in the oil fields, why is she more to be condemned 
than a man who does the same? Only because those 
who condemn her hold, consciously or unconsciously, 
that a man's money belongs to him and the woman's does 
not really belong to her. Even if the responsibility is 
not given her, she must for her own protection and that 
of the children, know what the family investments are, 
even to the share of her husband in his business and 
his obligations to it. Any lawyer who has had much to 
do with settling estates can tell many tales of how the 
ignorance of her husband's affairs has left his widow 
handicapped or even deprived of considerable sums that 
are due to his estate. The advantage of division of 
investments is pointed out in Chapter XVI. 

The question at the head of the chapter seems to be 
answered. The husband and wife sit down together to 



WHO MAKES THE FAMILY BUDGET? 17 

consider resources and to make such a budget for their 
family as will make those resources count most. They 
assign responsibilities for expenditure of each, heading 
as seems wisest to them, and they discuss together later 
any readjustments that have to be made. 

But how about the children — the apprentices? Are 
they to have no hand in the discussion ? The deciding 
votes must lie with those who have the responsibility, 
■with Father and Mother. But in a cooperative group 
have the minor members no share? Surely as soon as 
the children have reached an age when they can under- 
stand the general meaning and purpose of the budget, 
they should be included in the budget conference. This 
does not mean, of course, that they need know in dol- 
lars and cents the whole family income; children old 
enough to understand and discuss the principles of 
division may not be old enough to be discreet in what 
they repeat of the family affairs. But they can help 
decide whether they will cut down the food expenditure 
a little — say, have chicken and ice cream once a month 
instead of once a week — so that Janet can have violin 
lessons. Or they can belp decide that if John and Helen 
will be content with last winter's coats. Mother will do 
the same and all they save can go toward a Victrola. 

The high school girl who must have silk stockings 
because "all the girls do," her brother who must have 
silk 'Shirts because "all the boys do," get a new idea of 



18 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

value when tliey discover tliat if the silk stockings and 
silk shirts are bought, something else cannot be bought. 
The girl and the boy do not want to deprive Mother of 
her new gown, and do not realize that they do so when 
they ask for luxuries that the family income cannot 
meet without such sacrifice. They have no idea as to 
limits of expenditure or choice; they want "everything,'^ 
quite naturally and simply, and they must learn those 
limits as definitely, and sometimes as painfully, as they 
must learn reading, writing and arithmetic. The ques- 
tion of training the children is dealt with in Chapter 
XIII, but the question of "Who Makes the Family 
Budget ? cannot be answered without including them. 

It is repetition to say here that no one outside the 
family can make the budget for any self-supporting 
group. Those more experienced may give wise advice, 
but the responsibility for decision lies with the partner- 
ship. It is repetition also to say that public opinion 
should not be allowed to make any of the decisions. It 
should be considered and usually it should not be de- 
fied, since the social cost of defiance is too great, but it 
may and must many times be disregarded in matters 
relating to social prestige, if the family is to get what 
it wants most. Both these warnings are repeated here 
because both dangers are large stones on the Hill of 
Difficulty. 



Ill 

WHEN AND HOW TO MAKE IT 

To those who have never made a budget and have 
Qever kept accounts the problem often seems at first 
thought so difficult a one that many decide that they 
have no basis for budget making and must therefore 
keep accounts for a time, before attempting a plan. 
This is a mistake. To be sure, accounts are kept 
not only to check up adherence to the plan, but also to 
make possible a better plan later. But the plan is the 
main thing, and there one should begin. It is worth 
noting that often nowadays the term "household bud- 
get" is used to mean accounts as well as plan. This is 
inaccurate, and as is usual with inaccuracy, is a cause 
of confusion. 

It is highly advisable to make first a list of the 

family assets and liabilities. This is not imperative, and 

if the making of it is to delay the budget, it may be 

postponed for a little. However, the sum of money on 

hand (in cash or in banks) and any sum due the family 

should be noted, so that when the Assets list is made 

up it may be "as of" January 1st, or whatever date is 

chosen for beginning the budget period. 

19 



20 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

The Assets list needs first a sheet of paper, on which 
it can be made roughly: when complete it calls for 
a card of its own, to be filed with the other cards as 
described later. As the years go by, the Assets cards 
should become increasingly pleasant reading. Begin 
with all money available at the moment, whether in the 
form of cash in the purse or bank deposit. Then comes 
cash due, if money loans have been made. For a strict 
accounting one would reckon up milk tickets, car tickets, 
commutation tickets, postage on hand, but this is not 
necessary for the family purpose, since the amount 
these would show from year to year would not vary 
much. If the family has just bought a mileage book, 
and the Transportation-other-than-Carfare account is 
overspent, part or all of the cost of the book may be 
reckoned in Assets and charged up to the new account. 
But such a necessity does not often arise, and care 
should be taken that the charging is not done to make 
the accounts seem other than they are. 

Then, in any order liked, the list of investments. 
When there are stocks or bonds, they may be listed 
either at the cost value or the market value. The busi- 
ness firm would of course choose the latter, but there 
is an advantage to the family in preferring the former, 
since it is not only simpler, but quite as apt to represent 
the real value. For example, the family has $450 in 
Liberty Bonds, bearing interest at 4^4: per cent. These 



WHEN" AND HOW TO MAKE IT 21 

bonds were bought at par — $100 or $50 — from the 
United States Government. They are guaranteed by 
that Government and on maturity they will be paid in 
full. Yet if sold to-day in the market, these bonds would 
bring perhaps only $400. If they were bought as a 
speculation, then the value is only $400, but as an in- 
vestment they are worth $450. And the family that 
has invested liberally in these bonds and can hold them 
until they are paid might be discouraged by a shrink- 
age in their Assets list that is theoretical rather than 
real. Other bonds change in value, going up and down, 
and yet may still be steadily good investments. The 
family has actually saved the amount invested, not the 
amount the securities would bring if sold, and it is 
better psychology to represent the savings in real fig- 
ures. If they can say : "You know we really have more, 
because those stocks are worth more than we paid for 
them," that is rather a pleasant state of things. It may 
not be true the next time the Assets list is made. If, 
on the other hand, they must say: "Those stocks have 
gone down; they really are not worth now what we 
paid for them," there is nevertheless the cheering 
thought that before the time comes for their redemp- 
tion or sale they may have risen in value again. When 
there is great depreciation that is apparently perma- 
nent, the change from cost to market value must be 
made, or the Assets list is deceptive — and the family 



23 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

may have to be more careful as to the securities selected. 

Life insurance savings are represented by the amount 
paid in premiums. Strictly their cost includes interest 
on the money paid in each year, but as there is no such 
actual payment made, it is better not to show this in 
the figures. 

The value of real estate may be set down as what was 
paid for it, or where it has definitely risen in value, 
as the actual market value. This is a place where the 
family may legitimately reckon in dollars and cents 
the value of their judgment and foresight. 

The total value of the Inventory may be added — 
indeed, should be, not only so that the family may real- 
ize how much money it has invested without bringing in 
interest, but also so that the value of one year may show 
the change from the last year. If the family has chosen 
to cut down the cost of the Inventory, as it may easily 
do by not adding enough to the household equipment to 
make up for the depreciation loss, this should be evident 
in the Assets. These may not increase as much as the 
family had hoped, but if the value of investments bear- 
ing interest has increased and tliat of the non-interest 
bearing items of the Inventory has decreased, then the 
family is in a better situation financially. But here, 
as always, all figures must show real values, so far as 
figures can be made to do so. 

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24 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

debts, large and small, are definite. Where accounts 
are due to tradesmen, these should not be included un- 
less when paid the amount is to be charged to the old 
account. Ordinarily bills for December purchases 
charge to the January account, and if this is done year 
after year the accounts show 12 months each year. The 
business house must wait until all bills incurred in De- 
cember (or any other last month of the fiscal year) are 
in before they can close the books for the year, but 
there seems to be no advantage to the family in follow- 
ing such a procedure. 

A mortgage on real estate owned may appear in Lia- 
bilities Or may show in Assets, being deducted from the 
money value of the property before this is listed. It 
makes no difference which method is chosen. If it 
appears separately the state of the family finances is 
given in greater detail ; if it is shovtoi only by the value 
assigned the property, the list is more compact. 

Then arises the question of the period of time for 
which the budget should be made. Many think it easier 
to begin with a short period — three months, let us say, or 
even a single month. But this is a discouraging method. 
Such items as rent, food and telephone run on from 
month to month with the same, or approximately the 
same, expenditure. But clothing means usually a large 
amount in one month, almost none in another. Coal is 
bought usually to best advantage in large amounts — 



WHEX AND HOW TO MAKE IT 25 

often the year's supply at one time. Insurance is nor- 
mally paid in a yearly or two semi-yearly payments. 
Those who budget from month to month may easily be 
discouraged by the heavy charges of one month out of 
the twelve. The family income is thought of to best 
advantage in terms of a year, and the budget should be 
made for the full year. The calendar year is the easiest 
to choose, in many ways, though for those who are on 
salary and whose appointments range from July 1 or 
September 1 there may be an advantage in making the 
budget year start from that date, especially if the in- 
come is very small. Salaried people always hope for 
a "raise," and if the budget is for January-December 
and the larger salary begins in September, then there 
is a delightful surplus — any surplus is delightful, how- 
ever small !-T-for the last four months of the year. A 
budget that goes into effect January 1 is undoubtedly 
best for most people. 

The budget should be begun at least several weeks 
before it is to go into effect. The first session must 
have a good, long, free evening — or a free Sunday after- 
noon — given to it. Details can be considered and dis- 
cussed in odd moments after the general outline is 
made, and one more session of at least an hour is needed 
to put the budget into final shape. How much time a 
given family or individual needs must depend on the 
definiteness of their desires, the clearness of their think- 



26 GETTIi^G YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

ing and their general judgment ; but the minimum, is the 
time mentioned above. The budget is too important to 
be done in a hurried spare hour or two. 

Before beginning it is well to have on hand the form 
to be used in the budget and accounts. This may be 
adopted later — at any time before the budget goes into 
effect — but time is saved if the cards, leaves or books 
are ready. The discussion as to the best form is given 
at the beginning of Chapter VII. Many families on 
small incomes have worked the budget by an envelope or 
box system, distributing into these as weekly or monthly 
money comes in the share allotted to each heading. This 
is real budgeting, but it is not satisfactory without the 
long plan just discussed. Moreover, it leads to in- 
convenience in borrowing between envelopes or boxes, 
and it makes' impossible the convenience of the check- 
ing bank account. If detailed accounts are not kept — 
and if they are, there is no special point in the system — 
the details of expenditure escape record and are there- 
fore not available in planning future expenditure. The 
"system" is better than none, but it will hardly con- 
tent for long the intelligent user of money. 

When the solemn first session on the budget begins, 
the first thing to be faced is the income. To those whose 
income is from salary, from an allowance, or from in- 
vestments paying dividends regularly (like Govern- 



WHEN AND HOW TO MAKE IT 37 

ment bonds), the question is simple. The income is 
known in advance. For those whose income is derived 
from investments not sure to pay regularly, such as in- 
dustrial stocks, it is always the part of wisdom to set 
aside for Savings some part of the income each year, to 
be used in the years when the dividends are passed or 
lessened. Those who are in business or professional 
work for themselves or who receive part or all their in- 
come from commissions are only too often disheartened 
in making a budget because they cannot count on a defi- 
nite income. But this group, especially when the in- 
come is received in irregular amounts and not at stated 
times, need the budget far more than those whose weekly 
pay envelope or monthly check is steadily of the same 
amount. Their income should be reckoned as the sum 
on which they can safely count, not as the sum they 
hope to receive this year. If they can safely count on 
$3,000 and hope for $5,000, the budget should be re- 
lentlessly made for $3,000. Then after three months 
or six months, if the extra $500 or $1,000 has come 
in, they can revise the budget, counting only on 
what has been received, not on the possible extra money 
of the next similar period. In other words, their only 
safety is to plan so that they can live on the minimum, 
using any surplus only after it is received as actual 
cash. Mortgaging the future is a dangerous business, 



28 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

unless of course it is done with good judgment in the 
interests of future gain. The expected income should 
be carefully recorded on the form chosen. 

Now comes the very important question of the form 
of the budget. How detailed should it be ? Many who 
advocate the budget advise beginners to make very gen- 
eral headings, on the ground that classification is a 
difficult art. It is, and for that reason chiefly this 
book advocates strongly a very detailed list of head- 
ings, since with such a list the classification of the 
great mass of items requires no thought at all. To 
illustrate this point, let us consider the general head- 
ings frequently advised. 

Food Operating Expenses 

Clothing Higher Life 

Shelter Personal Expenses 

Miscellaneous 

Where does the dentist's bill go ? You will be told in 
Higher Life — horrible thought! — because health is in- 
cluded there. Where does the new side-board go ? In 
Operating Expenses, or in Shelter? Where do you 
charge the cost of the railway trip to grandmother's 
funeral? Miscellaneous? What does Miscellaneous 
mean, anyway, in cost accounting? Or Sundries, or 
Minor Expenses, or Personal Expenses ? How can you 
control the expenditure under such a grab-bag heading ? 



WHEN AND HOW TO MAKE IT 29 

But look at the detailed list suggested here. No one 
family, in all probability, would ever need all these 
headings, and many a family must add one or more 
of its own, but the principle of this is "a heading for 
every kind of thing and everything under its own 
heading." The items are arranged alphabetically for 
convenience in use. The advantage to the family of 
arranging them in classified order is hard to see: 

BUDGET AND ACCOUNT HEADINGS 
Subheads for Accounts Only 
Allowances (children) 
Automobile 
Care of House 

Outside 

Flowers 

Furnishings, permanent 

Furnishings, not permanent 

Inside 
Clothing-Accessories 

Coats and Wraps 

Gowns 

Hats 

Jewelry 

Eepair 

Shoes 

Underwear 
Debts 

Interest 
Education 
Entertainment 



30 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOKTH 

Express, Freight, Parcel-Post 
Food 

Bread 

Dairy Products 

Dry Groceries 

Food Outside Home 

Fruit 

Ice 

Meat, Fish, Poultry 

Vegetable Garden 

Vegetables 

Garbage Disposal 
Fuel 

Gifts (Church, charity, civic) 
Gifts (Personal) 
Health 
Insurance 
Laundry 
Light 
Lost^ 
Luxuries ^ 
Man's Expenditure 
Postage (Letter) 

Professional or Business Obligations 
Reading 
Eecreation 
Eent 
Savings 
Service 
Stationery 
Taxes 

1 For accounts only. 



WHEN AND HOW TO MAKE IT 31 

Telephone, Telegram 

Toilet 

Transportation — Carfare 

Transportation — Other than Carfare 

Vacation - 

Budget and Summary 
Income 



With such a list where is the difficulty of classifica- 
tion? The dentist's bill goes under Health, the new 
side-board under Oare of House-Furnishings, the rail- 
way trip under Transportation-other than Carfare. 
There is no Miscellaneous, Sundries, or any other 
catch-all to trap the unwary. The family or individ- 
ual who does not need all these headings ignores those 
that are unnecessary, and as said before, some families 
may need a new heading or two. But few are the fami- 
lies who cannot find within this list good headings for 
all their expenditure. There may, indeed, be some 
discussion of an individual item. One person, for ex- 
ample, charges a trunk or a traveling bag to Clothing- 
Accessories, because either is used to carry clothing 
chiefly, while another prefers the heading Transpor- 
tation, because either is used only for traveling. But 
such differences are negligible, so long as the individual 

2 Perhaps for accounts only. 



32 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

is consistent. And consistency is easy in the account 
keeping recommended here, because it takes but a mo- 
ment to look back to see what one decided the last time 
such an expense was recorded. 

In the first budget session, after the income is clearly 
noted comes consideration of this list of headings. As 
is stated at the head of the list, the subheads are in- 
tended for Accounts only, and the main headings alone 
need be considered in the budget. 

Before considering them, it is helpful to decide to 
learn to think in percentages, both in budgeting and in 
spending. Eleven cents a pound for string beans is 
"only a penny more" than 10 cents, but it is 10% 
more, which is worth considering. Ten per cent of the 
total food cost for the year is a tidy little sum. Per- 
haps the beans at 11 cents are worth more, perhaps 
the use of the shopper's time and energy is better if 11 
cents is paid, but the real money difference should be 
recognized. If the rent is $50, the change to $60 may 
perhaps be met without difficulty. It is only $10 a 
month more — ^but it is also 20%. The habit is 
one easy to acquire, one indispensable to the business 
man, and of almost equal value in the business side of 
the household. 

Before beginning to consider items, write on a large 
sheet the headings the family need, arranging the sheet 
so that the figures will be in columns, easy to add. Read 



WHEN AND HOW TO MAKE IT 33 

over Chapters IV and Y, which call attention to points 
worth considering under the different heads. The 
problem is after all not so difficult a one as first thought 
suggested. In an ordinary family the main expenditures 
are pretty accurately known. If a vague kind of bud- 
geting did not control family expenditures, the family 
would be in debt constantly. Father and Mother know 
about what they can afford for rent. To be sure, they 
may decide after careful study of the family's whole 
expenditure that they are spending more than they can 
afford so that they can change to advantage, even 
with the expense of moving counted in. But they be- 
gin with Rent — or its equivalent in costs for an owned 
house — and go on naturally to Food. Here many a 
family begins at once to doubt the need for an expendi- 
ture like that of the past. "Our food costs at least 
$20 a week. I wonder if we couldn't get it down to 
$19 or even $18.50? That would be $52 or $78 to use 
somewhere else." But the decision should not take 
long. 

Clothing is the next large expenditure, and probably 
the one that admits of the most variation in the ordi- 
nary family. A fairly generous allowance — what the 
family ought to be able reasonably to have, with its in- 
come and circumstances — should be allowed at first. 
Alas! in most cases it will have to be cut down later, 
in the interest of some other need or demand. 



34 GETTING YOUK MONEY'S VVOKTH 

Having provided for the elementary needs for the 
family, decide on Savings. Without being dog-matic, one 
can advise any normal family living on an earned in- 
come that it is running into danger if it spends more 
than 25% of its income for rent, spends more than 20% 
for clothing, or saves (of an earned income) less than 
10%. At this point of the budget making, check up to 
be sure that you are within these limits, and if you are 
not, see if readjustment cannot be made before going 
further. 

Select next the items that are not easily controlled, 
if at all. Insurance, for example, cannot be changed in 
amount without changing the amount of security gained 
by it. The income tax must be paid in full. If one has 
a telephone in the house, there is a minimum set auto- 
matically, and only the overtime or long-distance calls 
can be controlled. It does not take long to decide what 
the usual expenditure for the telephone is, and if later 
the budget must be pared here and there, perhaps the 
minimum can be changed. The difference between a 
single wire and* a party wire looks larger on the budget 
than it does on the monthly bill. Other items that are 
easily settled may be chosen in order, leaving those in 
which the margin is wider for later decision. Reference 
may he made to the notes of Chapters IV and V, which 
have been read over once already. It is easier to make 
all items in dollars, ignoring cents. 



WHEN AND HOW TO MAKE IT 35 

When there is a figure opposite each item, the first 
test comes. The addition of all the figures will in 
eight cases out of ten make a larger sum than the in- 
come! That is a natural result of the natural desire 
to have a little more than the income will buy — and 
perhaps of the equally natural feeling that we deserve 
to have it. Now comes the test of the family ideals, of 
the rank of importance of each item. Now begins the 
changing from sums ending in or 5 — the round 
numbers so easy to add — by shaving off one dollar here, 
two dollars there, three dollars somewhere else. Some- 
times much larger sums must be taken from the larger 
items. The two that are oftenest cut down after the first 
estimate are probably Clothing and Care of House. 
House furnishings fall under the latter head, and per- 
haps that new side-board would swell the account too 
much, or the new curtains for the sitting-room must 
wait — or be of plain marquisette, made at home. Cloth- 
ing can be extended so easily that it offers also many 
possibilities of contraction. Very few families really 
wear out their clothes, and few are willing to wear them 
after they are shabby unless the reward for doing so is 
definite and understood; Chapter IV offers suggestions 
as to the clothing budget. 

It is at the point where a general decision has been 
reached by the parents that the children are usually 
called in. The choices that have been discussed are 



36 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

gone over with them, and some may even be decided by 
their vote. If the children themselves decide for chicken 
and ice cream once a month instead of once a week, 
they will eat a good corn chowder cheerfully on Sun- 
day — and enjoy the chicken when they get it more than 
ever they did before. 

When at last the budget is cut and pruned until its 
sum total is that of the expected income, it is quite prob- 
able that the family will be more dissatisfied with its 
income than it ever has been in the past. Before the 
budget the dissatisfaction was scattered along through 
the weeks and days, general, but not acute. ISTow it is 
concentrated, and may become actually painful. But in 
compensation the whole question is faced, and the 
limitations are accepted, once for all. There are only 
two remedies — to increase the income, or to learn how 
better to adjust one's desires and habits to the present 
income. The second method can be used to some ex- 
tent in every family. Under the stress of the European 
war many a family that had thought itself as careful 
as it is possib'e to be in expenditure, even families who 
had lived by a wise budget — many such families learned 
to be content with a lesser expenditure on what was 
practically a smaller income, reduced by the rapid 
advance of prices. It was the desire to help that made 
the reduction possible. Other like desires can be culti- 
vated and encouraged until they become as imperative 



WHEN^ AND HOW TO MAKE IT 37 

as that aroused by a great national and international 
crisis. 

Having made the budget, the family must realize 
all over again that it is made for them, not they made 
for it. It can be readjusted at any time, but always 
•with the condition that when money is added to one 
item, an equal amount must be subtracted somewhere 
else. There was never a better teacher than the budget 
for the lesson that "you cannot eat your cake and have 
it too," The same money will not buy two different 
things. This question of readjustment is dealt with 
in Chapter VIII. 

And even without formal readjustment the budget 
will never, without absurd contortions of accounts and 
expenditures toward the end of the year, show an exact 
balance under each heading with the same heading of 
the accounts. Rent, Insurance — a few items of this 
kind may show on the yearly summary the exact amount 
allotted to them a year before, but very few items have 
such rigidity. The normal result shows a small excess 
in expenditure in some items, a small surplus in others. 
If the sum total does not exceed the income, and if the 
Savings item has had its due share, then the family 
may well feel triumphant as it closes one year and 
plans an even wiser use of resources for the next. 

The budget as accepted should be written on the 
card or leaf, or in the book, chosen for the accounts, a 



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40 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

second column being left blank for the figures of ex- 
penditure, to be filled in at tbe end of the year. This 
Budget-Summary is useful for the second year of bud- 
get keeping, and gro'ws increasingly valuable each year, 
as the series grows. After five years a careful com- 
parison of these will offer some interesting facts. Prob- 
ably it will be found that in the majority of items the 
variation is sometimes an excess, sometimes a surplus, 
while in others every year shows either one or the 
other. In the latter case the budget should of course 
be changed, in the interests of honesty. If the family 
plans year after year to spend a certain amount on 
the telephone, for example, and as regularly exceeds 
that amount, then the plan must be changed. To say: 
''I only allow myself $50 a year for amusement," when 
an Investigation would at once disclose that year after 
year shows an expenditure of $57, $59, or $60 is lying 
to oneself, and a petty sort of lying at that. One does 
not juggle figures that express ideals. 



IV 

THE BIG ITEMS 

The money spent for food, clothing and the house — 
under the two headings of Kent and Care of House — 
takes the bulk of the money of any but a very unusual 
budget. The item of Service is very heavy in some 
families, but these are comparatively few, since the 
overwhelming majority of families have no regular em- 
ployee in the household. Those who do, and especially 
those who have two or more, find the Service item 
ranking near that of Rent, and also increasing the 
budget for Food, except where household service has 
been put on the industrial basis as described in the next 
chapter under the heading Service. 

Rent. The family choice of a home is to be de- 
termined first by the conditions that make for health, 
next by its convenience for the members of the family 
who work outside the home, for the school-children, or 
for both, and last by the social values. If carfare must 
be paid to get to school or work, that is really part of 
the cost of rent, although in household accounting it is 
satisfactory to charge the expenditure to Transporta- 
tion-Carfare. The expense must, however, be kept in 

41 



43 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

mind iu considering the real cost of the family quartern. 

If the house is owned, the charges here are for taxes, 
insurance, assessments and repairs. Strictly speaking, 
there should be charged here and on the income card 
(balancing each other) the interest on the investment. 
This may be done at the end of the year in one sum. 
Since the value of the house appears among Assets, it 
is well to show that there is a real income from it, 
although no money is handled. It is also well to realize 
afresh from time to time the real cost of the use of the 
house. If the house is rented the matter of charging is 
simple. The terms of the lease must be carefully 
studied to see what money obligations may arise, as 
well as for other reasons. Besides the regular house 
charges this heading may include hotel rooms, though 
in many cases these are chargeable to Recreation, Busi- 
ness or Professional Obligations or Vacation. 

Those who are boarding often think it suflScient to 
have a single heading for Eent and Food, but this is 
unwise, as even in the same house one can increase 
or decrease the cost of the room by changing from one 
to another, while the food charge remains stationary. 

Food. There is a minimum of money cost to the 
food that will keep any given family adequately nour- 
ished, but it is an imaginary family that could be fed 
at this minimum cost. Likes and dislikes in food must 
be regarded. No normal human being wants to eat 



THE BIG ITEMS 43 

"calories" or "food values." He wants to eat food and 
food that he enjoys. Food that is "good for you" never- 
theless does not afford you nourishment unless you eat 
it. The wise homemaker studies ways of getting the 
members of her family to like both food that is "good 
for them" and food that offers as much nutrition for 
the same cost as some more costly food already liked. 
There are many books to help her. But the experienced 
homemaker who studies the problem has little difficulty 
in deciding as to the sum she must have to provide food 
that will meet both the family needs and the family 
approval. As she studies her small but important 
problems of cost accounting she learns how that sum 
can be lessened, and offers the family such choices as 
the chicken-and-ice-cream one referred to elsewhere. 

In the list of headings there are provided for the 
accounts a number of subheads under Food. These are 
of course not considered for the budget and in many a 
family they may not be needed at all. But usually it 
is helpful to keep at least a few of them for a year, since 
thus one can study the relation of expense to nutrition. 
In a family with several growing boys and one or two 
men the Meat, Poultry, Fish heading may profit by 
further division, since the meat cost is apt to rise 
appallingly high. Where there are a number of young 
children. Dairy Products must surely get its full share. 
Ice is often ignored in food costs, but may, especially 



44 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

for a family that lives in a city for the greater part of 
the summer, be no mean addition to food expenditure. 
"Food Outside Home" is especially worth while in a 
large city, where lunches or tea away from home seem 
a simple matter until one sees their cost in a year. 
Candy and soft drinks are well classed here. Some- 
times they are put under Kecreation, hut it seems wiser 
to classify all foods together, since all represent nourish- 
ment, even if some are not eaten with that in mind. 
Cigars, cigarettes, tobacco, on the other hand, have no 
nutritive value, and should certainly be paid for by 
Recreation. 

The Vegetable Garden often justifies a separate head- 
ing. It is not always easy to keep account of what 
comes from it, but a daily jotting down in a sj)ecial note 
book or on sheets will enable the housekeeper at the end 
of the season to get a general idea whether the garden 
paid in money as well as in the freshness of the product. 
Putting the cost of plowing or other paid work in the 
garden under the general heading Service is bad account- 
ing. If none of the family work in the garden, it may 
well be that the cost of labor sends the cost of the 
vegetables above the regular market price. Even so this 
may be advisable, since the vegetables are better, but the 
family should know what they are paying for. 

The whole question of canning and preserving at home 
needs the same careful study. The housewife need not 



THE BIG ITEMS 45 

reckon the labor cost at so much per hour, but if she 
finds that the total cost — materials, cans and rubbers, 
canning equipment, fuel, storage, loss and breakage — 
is greater than the money cost of the commercial prod- 
uct of equal weight, then she must consider carefully 
whether the quality of her own product is enough bet- 
tor to warrant the extra money plus her labor. It is 
not necessarily economy to do home canning and pre- 
serving. The market conditions and the home condi- 
tions both affect the question. The study of such a 
problem involves budgeting time and energy as well as 
money. 

Clothing. This is one of the most difficult items 
of the budget, not in making a decision as to the amount 
to be spent, but in using the amount to the best advan- 
tage. The primary purpose of clothing is undoubtedly 
to protect the body, a matter of health. But this pur- 
pose is almost obscured by the two secondary purposes 
that count most with all of us, that of adornment and 
that of conforming to the social usage of our group. In 
America that group is not a class, as in many of the 
older countries, but the people we wish most of all to 
be like. Many a girl with a small income, many a 
clerk on a small salary, give the same general effect 
when met on the street as the daughter or son of the 
multi-millionaire. Their variety of clothing cannot be 
as great, but their standard of style and even of quality 



46 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

is the same. Undoubtedly this leads many times to 
real and serious extravagance on the part of those — 
especially the young — of small income, since they sac- 
rifice health and family or social obligations to the desire 
to be "well dressed." On the other hand, the desire to 
look well is one of the elements of progress, and any 
attempt to urge young or middle-aged or old to dress 
plainly at a low cost without regard to effect would 
be not only ineffectual but reactionary. 

The ideal is a right one — to be "well dressed." The 
trouble is with the individual interpretation. To be 
well dressed is to be suitably dressed for the occasion, 
in clothing that is becoming in color and line and good 
in texture, but more than this, it is also to be dressed 
without deception, without the attempt to make others 
think that our incomes are larger than they are. It is 
the temptation to violate this last rule that brings most 
of the trouble. The average American is constantly 
tempted to a foolish sort of lying through outward de- 
tails, tempted to appear richer or more powerful than 
he or she actually is. This falsifying is often quite 
or partially unconscious. It is certainly not often faced 
and accepted. One of the great values of the budget is 
that it almost forces one to honesty in the matter. 

But when the question has been settled and the sum 
of money to be spent is known, difficulties are not over. 
In the first place, the sum should be divided fairly 



THE BIG ITEMS 47 

among the different members of the family, so that the 
account may be kept separately for each. If the school- 
girl is to have her silk stockings and the school-boy his 
silk shirts at the expense of Mother's winter coat or 
Father's summer suit, the money is being used ex- 
travagantly, and the children are being badly trained. 

Here also, in keeping accounts, it is of great im- 
portance to use the subheadings. They may seem un- 
necessarily detailed, but they will be found very help- 
ful, especially after three or four years. Then the card 
or the loose leaf (strongly urged in Chapter VII) will 
show at a glance the range of expenditure from year to 
year. Most people who have not kept such accounts 
decide at first sight that some of the subheads are un- 
necessary. "Jewelry? I never buy jewelry for my- 
self." This has a virtuous ring. The obvious answer 
is: "Do you never break a watch crystal or have your 
watch cleaned ? ^N^ever buy a hat pin or cuff links or a 
collar stud?" And the less obvious one is: "Why 
should you not, if you wish? If you prefer the per- 
manency of a topaz brooch or gold shirt studs to the 
vanishing attractiveness of a more expensive silk or 
serge, why should you not indulge in the jewelry? If 
you provide for your actual needs in clothing, it is for 
you to choose what will in the end give you the most 
pleasure." 

Clothing- Accessories puzzles many people. It might 



48 GETTING YOUE MON^EY'S WORTH 

perhaps be called Miscellanies except that that word 
suggests an idea that is taboo in good accounting. An 
umbrella is an accessory, a bathrobe, a belt, gloves. 
Stockings can be put here or with Clothing-Shoes, to 
show what dressing the feet costs. Materials for mend- 
ing and sewing naturally fall here, the item Repair 
being kept for the larger charges of remaking or, if it 
is put here instead of under Laundry, of dry cleaning. 
In considering clothing expenditure the first con- 
sideration in judging values is the fact that the net 
cost of clothing is the first cost plus care and repair, 
divided by the amount of wear. In other words, the 
undergarment of fine material trimmed with delicate 
lace whose first cost is "only $1 more" (probably 50%) 
must be laundered with such care that its cost is thereby 
much increased, and even then cannot be worn as many 
days as the one that cost $1 less. This is not to say 
that the daintier garment may not be justified, but only 
that its actual cost should be recognized. If it is, it 
may be worth to the owner the making for herself or 
the laundering by herself that will lengthen its life and 
make the cost per day little or no greater than that of 
the sturdier garment. The suit or gown that will clean 
well has a longer life before it than the one that will 
not stand cleaning. The garment of such style and 
quality that it will be good to look at through two or 
three seasons is better than the garment that will last 



THE BIG ITEMS 49 

but a single season. If the first costs three times tlie 
last, and the extra amount is paid for quality and good 
construction, the garment is well worth it, since the 
wearer will be better dressed all the three seasons than 
he or she could ever be in the cheaper material and 
style. 

The daily care of the clothing worn extends the cloth- 
ing income in a surprising way. Such care means that 
outer garments are properly brushed, and hung smooth 
on hangers — in free air until all dampness has evap- 
orated and then in a well-arranged closet, where they 
are not crushed or wrinkled. It means also that they are 
pressed whenever they need it, for tailored garments, 
once in a while by a tailor. It means that the least 
repair is made when it is first noticed — a hook or a 
button made secure, a rip sewed up, a small hole darned. 
It means that a spot is removed as soon as it is seen, 
and that for a woman collars and cuffs that can be 
laundered are kept constantly clean and smooth. For 
undergarments it means the same care in mending and 
also that these are never so soiled before laundering that 
much rubbing is needed to remove the soil. If the 
garments are mended before sending to the laundry, the 
repair is almost invariably less, and they should never 
be so soiled that they are objectionable to handle in 
mending. The habit of putting in or on the mending 
basket or table any garment as soon as it is seen to 



50 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

need repair, when there is not at the moment time to 
mend it, helps to ensure the mending before the next 
wearing. 

Silk undergarments and silk stockings — any silk com- 
ing in constant contact with the body — should be washed 
after every wearing, otherwise the body soil will in 
some degree rot the silk. If this rule is observed an 
astonishing amount of wear can be got out of a pair of 
good silk stockings or socks. Why not double the wear 
on either of these by the simple process of washing them 
out each night ? All stockings need frequent washing, 
and should be mended before they are washed. If both 
these things are done, there will never be great gaping 
holes to darn. By the time the stockings reach that 
stage they are ready to go to pieces. 

Shoes should be kept cleaned and polished or treated 
with whatever preserves best the material of which 
they are made, and shoe trees should be put in them 
the moment the shoes are taken oif. When rubber heels 
wear down or leather heels wear off or grow crooked, 
they should be repaired or straightened. Shoes of good^ 
material of course pay best, and if the sole wears out 
while the uppers are still good — as will happen with 
most people who walk on pavements — half-soling will 
be a justified economy. 

This is not a book on the care of clothing, but it 
is impossible to write adequately of a budget for cloth 



THE BIG ITEMS 51 

ing without pointing out how to ensure adequate return 
for the money spent. 

For the girls and women who enjoy sewing and who 
have the time for it, the money for clothes can be 
stretched by making collars, and other accessories or 
whole garments at home. Many attractive trimmings 
can be made at small cost. The woman who dislikes 
sewing and finds it a nervous strain should not attempt 
such work, and frequently it is a mistake for a woman 
who likes it to do much of it — when, for example, she is 
engaged all day outside the home in work that tires the 
eyes. There is no more reason why the woman who 
earns her own living should make her own clothes than 
there is why the man should make his. Usually, of 
course, she can do a little work of this kind and he, 
because of the nature of men's clothing, cannot make any 
of his. But if a woman keeps within her clothing budget 
and never touches a needle except for mending, she ful- 
fills her obligation. If she has less dainty clothing or 
less of it than her fellow worker who likes to make 
underclothes and blouses and summer frocks, that is her 
affair. 

There is one further point that needs consideration, 
and that is the amount of money that is tied up in cloth- 
ing at any one time. The greater number of people have 
hanging in their closets or lying in their drawers partly 
worn garments that are "too good to give away" and 



52 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

yet in practice prove usually too poor to use. As one 
sees that undergarments, for example, are wearing out, 
one buys a few new ones. "I need new nightgowns/' 
There are, say, six nightgowns in their proper drawer, 
of which three show distinct signs of wear. Two more 
are bought and put in the drawer, and then there are 
eight to be worn as they are needed. The three that 
gave warning are worn sometimes, but usually not as 
often as the others, and in consequence are still in the 
drawer after another six months or a year. Some- 
times the same result is brought about by the purchase 
of a real bargain in nightgowns. This is an economy in 
itself, but results in a nightgown collection representing 
$16 instead of $12. There is a simple way of avoiding 
this difficulty without failing to be forehanded. Set 
a limit to the number of any given article that should 
be in wear at one time, and when the new articles are 
bought, put them in a storage drawer until those are 
actually worn out that are "almost gone." It is often 
surprising how long a time that will take. As each 
garment is discarded, replace it by one from the stor- 
age collection. 

The same process should be used with suits, wraps 
and shoes. It is well to have a reserve of somethins: 
that cannot be spoiled by rough wear, for some emer- 
gency that may arise, but otherwise what cannot be 
worn with fair frequency or made over, should be dis- 



THE BIG ITEMS 53 

posed of. If a shabby suit or a dress is worn only 
once or twice a year, it does not justify house-room, 
especially when it will meet a great need of some one 
less fortunate. 

It is not necessary in order to make a clothing budget, 
but it is most helpful to make a complete inventory of 
one's own clothing, classified minutely, to set down the 
original cost, and to add up the sum. Most people have 
a greater amount of money than they realize tied up in 
this way. A very helpful thing is to have columns after 
the name of each item. In one column goes the number 
one actually has, in another the ideal number for one's 
needs, in a third, fourth and fifth the number one needs 
to buy every year, every other year and ''once in a 
while" in order to keep up the ideal number. Other 
columns give the cost of what one has, the yearly, bi- 
yearly and occasional cost of what is to be bought to keep 
up the number. The last three columns will give the 
yearly clothing cost — by adding the sum for every 
year, half the sum for every other year, and a third 
of the "once in a while." 

The following list shows the three columns of cloth- 
ing needed, as worked out in 191V by students in the 
School of Household Science and Arts of Pratt Insti- 
tute who were preparing to teach dressmaking, miUi- 
nery, and kindred subjects the following year. This 
out of date list is given because it is an excellent illus- 



54 



GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WOETH 



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THE BIG ITEMS 55 

tration of how easily readjustment may be m.a(ie. To 
revise this list in price would have meant many changes 
in 1919, but not so many in 1921. It is to be hoped, 
however, that the teacher had her salary raised soon ! 

Such a thorough going over is especially helpful in 
the planning of outer clothing. Men have less difficulty 
in this matter, but women or girls only too frequently 
find themselves without just the right dress for a given 
occasion, though they seem to have plenty of dresses 
hanging in the closet. Planning dresses by types will 
avoid this, and make provision for every social occasion 
one is likely to be called on to share. Fire insurance and 
burglar insurance on Clothing makes an inventory of 
some sort almost necessary. Insurance is taken usually 
in one sum to cover household equipment and clothing, 
and the cost of carrying it should be divided in right 
proportion between Care of House and Clothing-Ac- 
cessories. 

The variation in value-for-cost in the Clothing budget 
is evidently the greatest among the budget items. And 
since the right or the pleasing clothing makes a great 
difference in the comfort of most people, the question 
merits much careful study. 

Care of House. The subheads provided for this 
item are rarely all needed. "Outside" is necessary only 
where there are grounds enough about the house to mean 
a possibility of considerable expenditure. Sidewalks to 



56 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

be cleaned, flowers to be planted and weeded, shrubs 
to be trimmed — if this is all or most of it done by mem- 
bers of the family or regular employees, the heading 
is not needed. If the house is owned, the painting, 
shingling and other outside repairs to the house itseK 
are of course part of Eent. If "Outside" is not used, 
"Inside" can be omitted, and the charges for general 
cleaning materials set down to Care of House generally, 
without subheading. 

Care of House-Furnishings, without the distinguish- 
ing subheads, is usually sufficient, but when a house is 
being furnished or refurnished the subheads may prove 
valuable. This subdivision of Care of the House is 
one that is often called on to contribute to some other 
item of the budget that demands an excess. After all, 
a new dining table can wait until next year, slip-covers 
of cretonne made at home can cover worn upholstery, and 
the hall rug can be mended or even dispensed with 
altogether. Eurnishings are a sort of lasting luxury, 
and the acquisition of a longed-for bit probably gives 
the family a greater feeling of luxury than any other 
single expenditure — unless they buy a motor-car. On 
the other hand, it is easy to spend a goodly sum in a 
year on what some call doo-dads, little trifles that are 
amusing when one sees them for sale, amuse the family 
when they are taken home, clutter up the house, and give 
no lasting pleasure. 



THE BIG ITEMS 57 

If fire insurance and burglar insurance on furnishings 
are charged here, that will show up more clearly the 
full cost of expensive equipment. 

Flowers. This subhead is needed only when keep- 
ing fresh flowers or growing plants as part of the adorn- 
ment of the home is a habit leading to an unexpected 
amount of outgo. A quarter at a time means many 
dollars a year if it is spent often enough. If this bud- 
get item is regularly cut down every year, there is 
something wrong with the planning, but if it is hit 
hard sometimes, that is only in the course of nature in 
family life. 



THE LESSEE ITEMS 

Allowances (children) . Another chapter deals with 
the advisability of this heading. As this is definitely 
budgeted, the recording on the accounts is simple, and 
it is done in detail only to keep check on actual pay- 
ments. 

Automobile. This item may easily be a very heavy 

one. Only a careful accounting will enable the family 

to be honest about it. Of course if the car is kept partly 

for business or professional reasons, the due amount for 

that must be charged to business or profession. That 

due amount should include not only all current charges 

for repairs, gasoline, oil, garage charges (or expense of 

garage if owned or rented with house), insurance, 

license, purchase and repair of accessories, and the rest, 

but should include each year a sum set aside for the 

purchase of the new car that is to follow this one. If 

a chauffeur is employed, his wages and other expenses 

incurred for him should be charged here rather than to 

Service, although if he renders other service in house 

or garden that would otherwise be paid for, that amount 

should be duly deducted. Keeping the real costs of an 

58 



THE LESSER ITEMS 59 

automobile may be a task for a skilled accountaiit, but 
any family that is determined to be honest about it can 
keep an account that tells all they need to know. 

Debts. This item explains itself. For convenience 
Debts and Debts-Interest should go on separate cards. 
Payment on the first really represents Savings, as by 
reducing debt one increases the balance between assets 
and liabilities. Payment of interest is a current ex- 
penditure, to be provided for like any other necessity. 
It is put here only if the money owed is for general 
purposes. If it was borrowed to buy an automobile, the 
interest should be charged to that heading. If the debt 
is a mortgage on the house one lives in, the interest is 
of course charged to Pent. In a similar way interest on 
money borrowed for Education is charged to that item, 
and that on money borrowed for investment charged 
to the proper investment account. 

Education. It is simple to include here all school 
and lesson charges, whether for tuition or supplies. It 
is less simple to decide as to lectures, music and books, 
since these are often recreation as well as education. 
The heading Peading is provided to take care of all 
papers, magazines and books of a general nature. 
Whether a given lecture or concert should be charged 
here or to Pecreation or half to each, must be left to 
the individual to decide. Where a child's allowance 
covers Pecreation, the child should never be forced or 



60 GETTING YOUR MONEY^S WOETH 

even urged by father or mother to spend Recreation 
money on what seems to the child educational only ; that 
is, to what he would not himself choose as amusement. 

Entertainment. It might be possible to do fairly 
accurate cost accounting as to the expense of entertain- 
ing one's friends as house guests or for a meal One 
could, for example, reckon the life of sheets and towels 
and the cost per day of the use of each, and charge ac- 
cordingly to Entertainment the wear and tear caused 
by Aunt Mary when she stayed two nights. It might 
be harder to compute the "depreciation charge" on fur- 
niture — say the dining room chair she sat in — but it 
would be easy to get a fairly accurate statement of the 
cost of food. And it would not be difficult to strike 
an average and know what it costs, in general, to have 
guests. 

But would home be worth having if one took this 
point of view about friends and associates ? The tra- 
dition of hospitality that we cherish from the distant 
past would become only a painful memory. We do not 
pay to entertain our friends at home: we offer them 
what we have as being theirs. "My house is yours" is 
hospitality. "My house costs me $2,300 a year, of 
which $1.85 is charged up to your day here," could 
hardly produce happiness on either side, even if the 
words were not spoken aloud. The Eood allowance in- 
cludes the cost of all food consumed at home, whether 



THE LESSER ITEMS 61 

by family, friends, employees, or the stranger within 
the gates. If too many guests by chance send the costs 
over the top, the family cheerfully economizes until the 
account is normal again. The same general argument 
applies to the pleasure given friends through drives or 
motor trips. 

But "parties" may well be an extra cost, and esti- 
mated as such. And many times one entertains away 
from home, if only by an ice-cream soda or the entrance 
fee to the movies. When money is spent in this way, 
the share for the host or hostess is charged to Recrea- 
tion and only that of the guest or guests to Entertain- 
ment. If one wishes to see a play and invites a friend, 
to charge both tickets to Entertainment would be de- 
ceiving oneself as to one's own generosity. In the case 
of membership to a social club where one often invites 
friends, each time club dues are paid, part should be 
charged to Recreation, part to Entertainment — half to 
each, or one-third and two-thirds, or any proportion that 
seems just. 

Express, Freight, Parcel Post. This heading does 
not include expressage and cartage on baggage taken on 
a trip. The whole cost of the trip should go under 
Transportation, in order that one may consider it as a 
whole. All other cartage and transportation of pack- 
ages goes here unless it is a legitimate part of the cost 
of some item classed elsewhere. For example, if food 



63 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

materials are shipped from city to country or vice 
veraa as a matter of economy, the shipping costs of 
course are charged to Food. It is probably wise to 
charge the shipping costs on Gifts (especially at Christ- 
mas) to that heading, as often it costs as much to send 
as to buy the gift, and one's attention is not called to 
that fact if the express or parcel post is charged else- 
where. It would of course be possible to eliminate this 
item entirely, charging each expenditure to some one 
of the other heads, but in practice it has proved a con- 
venience to have it. 

Fuel. This item practically explains itself. See 
comment under Light. 

Gifts (Church, charity, civic). This and Savings 
are the two headings of the budget that usually profit 
most by the existence of the budget itself. There are 
few people who would not like to give more generously 
than they do. And there are thousands whose conscience 
is continually uneasy because they are uncertain whether 
they are giving their share. When the family sits down 
to a delicious meal and some one speaks of famine in 
China or misery in Europe or the children dying of 
malnutrition even in our own prosperous land, how 
can the family be happy about its table except by re- 
lentlessly thrusting out of mind the appalling pictures 
the words conjure up? But if the family has delib- 
erately planned its expenditure and has set aside a 



THE LESSER ITEMS 63 

definite portion of the family income for giving "for 
the general good," and also deliberately decided that it 
has a right to a certain expenditure for food, then con- 
science does not clamor in just the same way. To be 
sure, one may still feel selfish — and still be so — but at 
least there has been an attempt to take one's share of 
the burden of the world. 

Then, too, is one able to enjoy the real luxury of 
giving. Few men and women, and fewer children do 
not wish to help those who are less fortunate than them- 
selves, and do not feel that a certain part of all that 
they have really belongs to these less fortunate. The 
grown people realize that this obligation extends to in- 
stitutions and foundations that render great public 
service. Some call this part of their income "God's 
share," and this expresses most simply the obligation. 
When the family decides what this sum is to be, that 
sum then belongs to other people, and the only ques- 
tion regarding it is its wise distribution. But however 
generous the amount, it is soon given or promised. Then 
comes the call of some great need, and with it comes 
the chance for the real luxury of giving. Beyond the 
sum that "belongs" one can give by real sacrifice — 
taking some of the money assigned to Clothing or Recre- 
ation or Care of the House or what not. Then one 
really gives and enjoys the deep pleasure of giving. 
Such pleasure is impossible when one has not made a 



64 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

definite budget, since even if one goes without a winter 
coat one had expected to buy, one may easily spend 
enough more in the spring to make the total Clothing ex- 
penditure as large as it would be normally. 

The amount to be given must depend in part on the 
needs of the family. A family with a generous income 
for its needs will naturally not be satisfied with giving 
less than one-tenth of the income — ^the tithes of the 
Hebrew and many other early religions, when the tenth 
part of everything grown or made belonged to the Lord 
as a matter of course. Many men and women of large 
income give much more than this^ and it is significant 
that the U. S. Government exempts from payment of 
income tax up to fifteen per cent of any income when 
it is given for the public good. 

On the other hand, the family with small income and 
the obligation of feeding, clothing, housing and educat- 
ing children often cannot possibly afford to give one- 
tenth. Many such families do not try to give anything, 
though their spirit is just as willing as that of their 
richer brethren. The small gifts seem so insignificant 
in the face of the thousands or even millions that others 
can give. What will their two dollars or their ten 
cents do? There are, of course, two answers to that 
question. First, the small gifts taken together count 
more than the very large gifts. Any one who has had 
experience in the finances of any philanthropic or edu- 



THE LESSER ITEMS 65 

cational institution will prefer a large number of con- 
tributors of moderate sums to a single contributor of a 
large sum. But the other answer is the one of greater 
importance. Society is a cooperative affair, and it is 
successful only so far as cooperation approaches per- 
fection. It is not only in the eyes of God that the 
widow's mite counts as much as the bag of gold of 
the rich man. In the eyes of all socially minded men 
what counts is not the amount that one can give or do, 
but the fact that each does his share. The family that 
does not give something is failing in its social duty. 
As to the amount that any given family should contrib- 
ute, that is a matter for them to decide, not for others 
to tell them. 

It is a hopeful fact that hundreds of families and in- 
dividuals who have never budgeted or kept account of 
any other item, have learned to set aside "God's share" 
and to keep account of it, so that they may be sure 
that they are full members of the human family. 

Gifts (Personal). A common mistake in budget 
classification is to put all gifts under one heading. It 
needs but a moment's thought to see that gifts to family 
and friends are a very different matter from gifts for 
the public good. The personal gifts give the same kind 
of pleasure that one gets from entertaining one's friends. 
And in actual expenditure they bring a retui'n in the 
form of gifts to ourselves — although that is not our 



66 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

own motive in making any real gift. Gifts to churcli, 
philanthropic or civic work or to individuals in need are 
part of our general social obligation. 

Under Gifts (Personal) should be charged the ex- 
penses of making gifts — cards to accompany them, tissue 
paper, ribbon, parcel post or express. 

Health. This is the most tyrannical of all the head- 
ings, since at times it assumes control and runs away 
with Savings and even with some of the money assigned 
for other uses. A family in making a budget for the 
first time is apt to say that it is impossible to make even 
a general judgment as to what must be spent for the 
year ahead. It is hardly an item on which one can 
economize, unless one starts with the pernicious patent 
medicine habit and cuts that out! The items include 
charges for the services of physician, surgeon, oculist, 
aurist, dentist, osteopath, masseuse and all who give 
"treatment." It includes also medicines on prescrip- 
tion, household remedies, glasses and the replacing of 
broken lenses. Among all these charges there are some 
that are for most people fairly regular — the dentist, 
for example, and household remedies like carbolated 
vaseline or laxatives. But these are a poor basis for 
computing the whole. If the expenses under this head 
for the last five years are added and an average taken, 
that will be a fair start. If there was any large expense 
for a major operation or a long illness during those five 



THE LESSER ITEMS 67 

years, that skould be omitted in the calculations. If by 
any chance a balance should be left at the end of the year 
on this account, the amount should be added immedi- 
ately to Savings, since it is ordinarily from that account 
that any extra money needed for Health must be taken. 
Sometimes another item can be cut down, but it is not 
always advisable to do so. To save on Food or Clothing 
after a long illness may prove in the end an extrava- 
gance, ^o one can decide in advance even for him- 
self how such adjustments can be wisely made, but 
those who are used to applying the right principles in 
planning their expenditure will have little difficulty in 
making decisions. 

Insurance. As already stated, fire insurance on 
house is charged with the other costs of the house under 
Rent, that for household equipment and clothing under 
Care of House and Clothing-Accessories. If it is con- 
venient to have all insurance charges on one card, one 
column can be used for those charged here only, and 
the second with *d duplicate charges. In entering, the 
name of company, number of premium and time cov- 
ered should be included, as this is useful for reference. 
It must be kept in mind that when premises or condi- 
tions are changed the insurance company must be 
notified. 

Health and accident insurance might at first sight 
seem to belong under Health, and allowance may be 



68 GETTIISTG YOUR MOISrEY'S WORTH 

made for tliem there. But wlien their purpose is to pro- 
vide income or additional income, which is not always 
all spent on physician, nurse or medicine, it is quite 
legitimate to charge them here. 

Life insurance as a form of investment is discussed 
in Chapter XV. 

There are many forms of insurance. It is said that 
Lloyd's, the great English firm, will issue insurance on 
any risk of any kind. To insure against loss of crop 
by hail or storm, against loss of business caused by rain 
on a holiday, against the non-arrival of a given train 
(on time) — there is no end to the list. But few of these 
affect the household as such or the individual in his 
private life. 

Laundry. This is an advisable item to keep sep- 
arate, even when the work is done at home and no sep- 
arate wage is paid for it. Fuel that is used for the 
purpose is of course not counted in the household, as it 
would be in an institution where cost accounting is 
careful. But soap, starch, bluing, clothes pins, other 
equipment — all are easily recorded, and if a laundress 
is employed the wage goes here too. Dry cleaning may 
be charged here or in Clothing-Eepair or Care of 
House (according to article cleaned). 

The item of Laundry may become a very heavy one, 
and it is one that can be cut down by the careful plan- 
ning of clothing and house linen, by the proper care of 



THE LESSER ITEMS 69 

both, and often by the laundering oneself of at least part 
of the clothes. As is pointed out under Clothing, in 
calculating its real cost, one must consider the cost of 
cleaning or repairing and the wearing quality. Delicate 
collars and blouses that will be worn out in a few 
washings by the average laundry or laundress will last 
through many careful launderings by the owner. Many 
a wise young man washes out his silk socks after every 
wearing, and can listen calmly to the accusation of 
extravagance from some comrade who says he cannot 
afford silk socks, yet wears cotton ones several days, 
sends them to the laundry, has them worn out rapidly 
and actually spends more on socks than his "extrava- 
gant" friend. Many a young woman appears day after 
day in immaculate dainty collars that she washes or at 
least presses after every wearing, and handles so care- 
fully that she can afford a hand-embroidered collar, or 
one with real lace, while some of her companions accuse 
her of extravagance and themselves wear machine em- 
broidered "cheap" collars that they send to the laundry 
and whose cost per day of actual wearing is double that 
of the collars of the "extravagant" one. But only those 
who have the budget and account habit find it easy to 
tell which methods are best in the end. 

Light. In many budget classifications Light and 
Fuel form one item. In the city apartment where heat 
is furnished with the rent and gas (or electricity) h 



70 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

used for both lighting and cooking, it is not possible 
to separate them exactly. Otherwise it is far better 
to keep them under separate heads. In most house- 
holds "Light" can be cut do'wn by careful use when 
"Fuel" is not so easily controlled. The separation 
enables one to judge how far control is possible with 
either. 

Matches should be put with Fuel unless they are 
used for lighting also, in which case their cost should 
be divided between the two headings. Candles of 
course go here, but candlesticks and shades are part 
of house furnishing, as are lamps, shades and fix- 
tures. 

Lost. This is a melancholy heading, never to be 
provided for in the budget, but appearing occasionally 
in the accounts. It is possible to avoid it when the 
loss is anything but money by charging the cost of 
return or replacement to the item under which the 
original purchase was classified. For example, a lost 
watch may mean cost of advertisement and reward or, 
if the watch is not returned, replacement. All of these 
charges may be made to Clothing-Jewelry, and the 
amount planned for Clothing for that year lessened by 
that much. 

If a sum of money is lost, however, it lessens the 
whole amount available, but is not directly chargeable to 
one head. And as a matter of check on carelessness it 



THE LESSER ITEMS 71 

is probably better to charge all expenses of loss and re- 
placement under the single heading. 

Luxuries. This is a heading that many people find 
useful in their accounts, but it should not be a budget 
item, and should be a repetition as far as accounts go, 
ignored in a balance. That is to say, each item that 
appears under this heading must appear also under its 
own. To charge here a new gown — or the cost above 
the average if a more expensive gown than usual is 
bought — and not to enter the amount also under Cloth- 
ing-Gowns conveys false information, since the total 
of the latter card will in that case not show all that has 
been spent on that form of clothing. 'No "luxury" 
should cause overspending in any item. To the person 
who for present satisfaction or future guidance wishes 
to know what he or she could have done without com- 
fortably, such a list may have excellent psychological 
effect. But in the interests of honest accounting it must 
be repeated that the charges on this card must be dupli- 
cates, the regular charge under the proper heading being 
made in the usual way. 

Man's Expenditure. This is an elastic item. It 
may include only the "pocket money" any man needs 
for carfares, lunches, tobacco, papers and the like, 
or it may be stretched to include all the man's per- 
sonal expenditure, including Clothing and Entertain- 
ment. In the latter case the sum must be compara- 



72 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

tively large. And also the expenditure (without hud- 
get) is not very well controlled. Yet the fact remains 
that very few men, however much they may declaim 
against the unhusiness-like hahits of the housekeeper 
who keeps no account, are willing themselves to keep 
account of their personal (as distinguished from their 
business or professional) expenses. And it is quite 
possible for the general family expenses to be carefully 
planned and checked even when the "head of the house" 
refuses to bother with accounts, provided that a definite 
sum is set aside at the time of planning the budget, and 
that all cash he keeps or all expenditures made for him 
are charged against that sum. Without any intention of 
unfairness on his part, many a man asks his wife to 
buy or make for him shirts or socks or what not, and 
forgets that the articles or materials cost money that 
must be provided specifically. These items charged 
on the Man's Expenditure card show just where his 
expense stands. As with all those who do not keep ac- 
counts, the average man fails to realize how small ex- 
penses mount up, and almost inevitably thinks his per- 
sonal expenditure smaller than it is. He too will get 
his money's worth only when he knows exactly what he 
does spend, even if he still refuses to classify the ex- 
penditure. 

Postage (Letter). This item is commonly classed 
with Stationery, and that is a natural grouping. Yet 



THE LESSEE ITEMS 73 

the fact remains that while the item Postage can hardly 
be varied much (since one does not, after all, fail to 
write to a friend because it costs two cents) that of 
Stationery may be kept modest or grow to very large 
proportions. Parcel post charges belong with Ex- 
press. 

In keeping account of postage exact dates are of no 
special value, and the easiest method is to disregard 
columns and run the account across the card, giving 
month once and then amount, adding each expenditure 
as it is made, so that the total is up to date. 

Professional or Business Obligations. This item 
is not needed where all such expense is automatically 
charged to the professional or business account. Yet 
more people than one realizes at first have some ex- 
pense of this kind to meet. Those who are their own 
employers charge such expense to their business or pro- 
fessional accounts, — or should do so — ^but those on 
.salary or commission may often find it necessary or 
advisable to spend money for such purposes that will 
not be paid by the employing institution or firm. 

There are many expenditures that fall under this 
head, most of them small. The largest is probably 
attendance at conventions or meetings, where the ex- 
pense is not met by educational institution or business 
house. !N'ext come the annual dues and contributions 
to trade, business or professional associations, and sub- 



74 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

scriptions to periodicals of the same kinds. Attendance 
at association or group dinners, the entertainment of 
professional associates who are not also personal friends, 
contributions to flowers for social occasions or even fu- 
nerals of trade or professional associates — all these 
mount up. In large cities even carfares for attendance 
on committee and other meetings may come to a nota- 
ble sum. 

This heading is probably more valuable to the salaried 
people of the educational world than to any other single 
group. 

Reading. This includes the daily paper, magazines, 
books, rent of books and library fines. Text-books are 
naturally charged under Education. This item is easy 
to control, as the cost of regular subscriptions is known 
in advance, and the purchase of new books can be les- 
sened even to vanishing point. That the family plan 
should include the addition to the family library of some 
really worth-while books each year is obvious. Even 
the service of the fine public libraries of to-day cannot 
take the place of the books that are part of the family 
life. The books should be selected with the same care 
as the family friends, and if an uncongenial stranger is 
introduced — by gift, let us say — he should be given no 
place in the choice company. A shelf in store-room 
or attic is good enough accommodation, although the 
wisest way to dispose of him is to give him to some one 



THE LESSEE ITEMS 75 

who likes him — unless, of course, he should by chance 
be vicious. Many people respect a book as such, and 
give it room and consideration when a human being with 
the same qualities would not be an acceptable associate. 
Many choose carelessly a book that is worth reading 
once, but that is not worth a permanent place in the 
home. 

Some charge magazines and fiction to Recreation, but 
it is simpler to have one heading for all additions to 
the general reading of the family, and a little study of 
the itemized list of expenditures at the end of the year 
will enable one to judge whether the reading matter 
added was the wisest choice. When Christmas and 
birthdays bring gifts of magazine subscriptions or 
worth-while books, if possible this should not mean 
cutting down the Reading budget, but only the pur- 
chase of further reading matter. For pleasure and 
profit all but the large-incomed families need more than 
they can assign to this heading. 

Recreation. This heading needs little explanation. 
If there is one special form of recreation that calls for 
proportionately large expenditure, such as Music, Pho- 
tography, Fishing, a subhead can easily be made, in 
order to keep careful account, so that the rest of Recrea- 
tion gets its share. Tobacco needs such a card in many 
families. Comments under Vacation explain its re- 
lation to this heading, and under Entertainment at- 



76 GETTING YOUR MONEY^S WOETH 

tention is called to the proper charging one's own 
share of ''Entertainment." 

Savings. As is pointed out under Gifts (Churehj 
charity, civic) this is one of the headings that profits 
most by the very existence of a budget. It is only too 
much the habit of those who are concerned as to the 
methods of expenditure of those of small income or 
moderate income to talk as though the people who do 
not save money are lacking morally because they do not 
desire to save. Such an accusation is ridiculous. The 
person or the family who would not like to have "money 
in the bank" or otherwise invested is so rare as to be 
negligible in discussion. Every one would like to have 
money "put by;" the difficulty is how to get it into 
that desirable position. Since the desires of any nor- 
mal individual or family are always greater than their 
income can satisfy, there is only one way to effect sav- 
ing, and that is to plan it deliberately. 

Where the income is too small for the legitimate needs 
of the family, saving may become a vice instead of a 
virtue. Many an ambitious working man has saved 
the flesh off his children's bones or driven his wife to 
an early death by depriving her of the very necessities 
of life in order that he might watch his savings bank 
account grow. This book, however, is not meant for 
those who have not income enough to feed, clothe and 
house their families decently. As soon as one reaches 



THE LESSEE ITEMS 77 

the moderate income^ the income that allows a margin 
of choice, then the question of Savings becomes of great 
importance. 

Savings are for three purposes — the meeting of 
emergencies, accumulation for special purposes, and pro- 
vision for old age, or the time when the earning power 
decreases or ceases. Savings for the first purpose are 
imperative. A major operation, a long illness, a costly 
journey to a family death bed or funeral, a period of 
unemployment — there should be a sum available suffi- 
cient to meet any of these. Otherwise debt is almost 
inevitable, and debt is both costly and discouraging. 
How much of the income must be saved for this pur- 
pose ? It is of course impossible to answer for any in- 
dividual or family, but it is safe to say that unless 
one saves ten per cent of the income the margin is dan- 
gerously low. Many families of fair income are in 
such circumstances that they find saving ten per cent 
almost impossible ; others with the same income but 
different circumstances find saving more easily pos- 
sible. 

The second end — accumulation for a special purpose 
like a musical education or a voyage to foreign coun- 
tries — needs no comment. 

As to the third end of Savings — the provision of an 
income from investments when one is no longer earned 
— ^that calls for more than ten per cent of any ordinary 



78 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

income. Each family or individual must calculate and 
plan for tlie best methods. In Chapter XV some sug- 
gestions are made as to the types of investment suited 
to different types of individual or family. It should 
he the rule in the Savings item that besides the sum 
set aside from the yearly income, all interest on money 
already saved should be turned back into the Savings 
account. Where savings have been invested in a house 
the family should if possible pay regular rent to itself 
and invest the money. If this is not done, the house is 
likely to prove no saving, as far as future income goes. 
Money saved for the first purpose — the emergency — 
may be available for the second purpose, where the 
emergency does not arise or does not prove serious. 
Savings for the tv^^o purposes are not kept physically 
separate, of course, but unless the distinction as to the 
two needs is kept clear, a family that has saved a little 
money by careful planning and some deprivations is 
apt to be discouraged v^hen it is all swallov^^ed up in 
one siege of typhoid fever. Every family should ex- 
pect emergencies and plan philosophically for them; 
then if they do not come, so much the better. There is 
no question that saving becomes easier as the savings 
account gTows. The interest in a growing savings ac- 
count is a natural and almost a universal interest. In 
former days it often led to a love of money for its 
own sake and so to the miser's joy in his hoard. But 



THE LESSER ITEMS 79 

in modem times there is little danger that the ordinary 
human being will grow to care more for money than 
for all the opportunities that money makes possible. 

The first obligation in planning expenditure is to in- 
sure physical and mental health for the family; and 
for the latter a certain amount of recreation is essen- 
tial. The second obligation is to the general good — to 
give one's share. The third obligation is to- the future — 
to make due provision for it in the form of savings. 
After these three obligations are met, the family choice 
decides the rest. There may be instances where the 
second obligation has to yield to the third, but normally 
they go hand in hand to make for happiness and g-ood 
citizenship. 

In recording Savings it is frequently advisable to 
have several cards. Savings-Insurance and Savings- 
Bonds may well be kept apart. When any part of sav- 
ings is so invested that money must be paid out, it is 
almost necessary to keep a separate card for that item. 
For example, if the family owns some real estate, there 
will be taxes and perhaps other charges. The card for 
Savings-Hollis St. Lots may show expense only, to be 
considered as Savings and added to the Assets list by 
adding this year's payments to last year's valuation of 
the lots in question. If the family builds a house on one 
lot, to rent, the heading becomes Savings-176 Hollis St., 
and the card shows the income as well as the outgo. All 



80 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

such records are naturally kept in some form by the 
business man, but if the family, or such members of 
it as are old enough to use the records, are to kno'w 
"where they stand, the figures should appear there. 

Service. The wages of employees in the household 
and payment for extra services outside are chargeable 
here, except where a specific heading claims the item. 
Laundry, for example, records the wages paid a laun- 
dress, but if she spends half her day only on the laun- 
dry and the other half on cleaning, the charge should 
be divided. The chauffeur, or, if he is also houseman, 
the due part of his cost, is charged to Automobile. Fees 
to porters are part of Transportation (or perhaps Recre- 
ation or Vacation). The cost of cutting the grass or 
caring for the garden are Care of House-Outside, 
although when the garden produces food, the charge 
must be made to Food-Vegetable Garden. For any 
work of cleaning in the house it is simpler to 
■use the heading Service. If one wishes to know the 
total that has been paid during the year in wages and 
fees, this can easily be obtained from the different head- 
ings. If it is advisable to keep a current record it is 
better to enter all charges as Service, marking with a 
* or some other device all items that are also charged 
elsewhere. By keeping the starred items in a column 
of their own, it is easy to keep the aceoimt straight. 

For regular employees — ^what we used in unregen- 



THE LESSER ITEMS 81 

erate days to call servants — there is gradually be- 
ing established an industrial basis. Instead of the old 
idea that the maid's time belongs entirely to the house- 
keeper who employs her, and who generously gives her 
an afternoon off and a number of free evenings, it is 
recognized that the employee's time is her own except 
as she contracts to sell a certain fixed amount of it to 
her employer. During this definite schedule of hours 
she works continuously, and at least in the city where 
this is possible, she does not live in the house or eat 
her meals there as part of her payment, but goes out 
for them, as a stenographer or factory worker would 
do. Sometimes she has a room in the house, as part 
payment, but this is a matter of choice. In such cases 
the money wage is of course higher than under the old 
arrangement, but there seems to be general agreement 
among those who have tried the method whole heartedly 
that the money cost to the household is not greater than 
before. In reckoning the cost of a regular employee on 
the old basis, one must add to wages the cost of food, 
of at least light for the bedroom, of wear and tear, and 
if the room is not a superfluity, of rent. These costs are 
not separated in the budget, but they should be con- 
sidered, and at the end of the year it would 'be well to 
add them in lump sums to the "Service" total, so that 
the question of cost of service is clear. 

Even with the day worker costs must be considered. 



83 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOKTH 

Tlie work of the laundress costs in addition to her wage 
(and perhaps carfare) her noon meal, and the cost 
of furnishing soap, hot water, bluing, starch, heat for 
the irons. Frequently the laundering is so much more 
carefully done at home under the housekeeper's supers 
vision that the saving in wear and tear is considerable, 
but again many times a careful laundress is available 
who will do the work in her own home at no greater 
money expense, if all the items are reckoned, and at 
a saving of time and energy for the homemaker. Some- 
times the laundry can go from city or tow^n into the 
"real country" by parcel post, to the advantage of the 
country woman who has few opportunities to earn money 
and of the city woman who gets her laundry done at 
a less money cost than in the city, with a greater prob- 
ability that the clothes have been dried in clean air and 
in sunshine. The advantage of the different arrange- 
ments possible is one of the numerous cost-accounting 
problems that the housekeeper must study, if she is to 
get the most from the family income. 

Stationery. Under Postage it is explained why the 
two items should be kept separate. This heading in- 
cludes all the minor expenses attendant on correspon- 
dence — ink, pens, pencils, blotters, paste erasers. This 
is where accounts cards are charged ! 

Taxes. This is a heading only for general taxes, 
the income tax the chief. In some places there is a 



THE LESSER ITEMS 83 

poll tax also. Taxes on real estate are charged to Rent 
if one occupies the property, to Saviugs if one holds the 
property as a present or future means of income. Sales 
taxes are naturally charged with the articles as part 
of their price but if these are listed also separately on 
an extra card, exemption can be claimed for them in 
filing income tax returns. 

Telephone, Telegram. This is a convenient classi- 
fication in days when telegrams can be charged to the 
telephone account. It is only in rare cases that there 
would be an advantage in keeping the two headings 
separate. 

Toilet. This is one of the minor items that are not 
usually detailed, yet here is a chance to spend or save, 
especially for a girl or woman. Tooth brushes do not 
differ much in cost, but toilet soap may prove a matter 
of serious expense. So may perfume, powder, cold 
cream, cosmetics of different sorts. Then there are the 
shampoo and manicuring. Keeping this item separate 
has brought many a young woman to the washing of 
her own hair and the care of her own nails, since money 
thus saved may easily be enough to do some worth-while 
thing not otherwise possible. Hairpins, hair nets, pins, 
safety pins — some of these may be classed with Cloth- 
ing-Accessories if one prefers, but there vvdll still re- 
main many items for the heading Toilet. 

Transportation. The division into two headings is 



84 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

a convenience. The carfare card is easiest kept like that 
for Postage — a running account across the card, with 
the total up to date. 

Under the general heading come railway and boat 
fares, with the attendant expense for baggage, Pullman 
porters and the like. Cab fares fall here, also. Whether 
the cost of the vacation trip is to go here is discussed 
under the next heading. 

Vacation. Whether this is to be kept a separate 
item is a matter for each family or individual to decide. 
Where the family has a country home or rents one for 
the year, the estimates for Food, Service, Recreation and 
the like naturally include the summer expense, and 
Transportation takes care of the traveling expenses. If, 
however, the vacation means a "trip" or a stay at board- 
ing house or hotel, it may be preferable to set aside 
a sum to cover all expenses and keep the heading sep- 
arate. In that case it is better accounting to deduct 
from the cost of living what food would have cost at 
home, charging the regular Food account with the 
usual amount. The same thing may be done with the 
Service account. The small differences are unimportant, 
but there should be some way of deciding how much 
more it has cost to go away from home than it would 
have cost to stay. The difference is fairly chargeable 
to Vacation. 



VI 

WHY AND WHAT ACCOUNTS? 

For a long time it has been the habit of many men, 
especially those engaged in business, to condemn in no 
mild terms the woman in the home who is in charge of 
expenditure and yet keeps no accounts. Her failure 
to do so is made to seem a moral delinquency. As has 
been intimated before, not one out of a hundred of these 
critics keeps an account of his own personal expenses, 
but let that pass. What is the need for accounts ? 

The answer of most of the housewives who do not 
keep them is that they are of no value, since the money 
is gone, and it has been spent as well as they knew 
how. Quite true. What is the value of accounts un- 
less they are to be used as a basis for future planning 
and as a check on the plan for the present ? And they 
are of little use toward better judgment in future spend- 
ing unless that better judgment is expressed in the 
form of a budget. On the other hand, the budget is 
of no value unless accounts are kept. A plan must be 
carried out, to have value, and the only way to find 
out whether the plan for spending the family money is 

being put into practice is to keep accounts under each 

85 



86 GETTING YOFE MONEY'S WOETH 

budget heading. It is evident that the budget has no 
value unless accounts are kept and that accounts have 
little value unless a budget is made. 

The housewife who has tried to keep accounts and 
given it up almost always declares that the last straw 
in "what seemed to her a useless burden was the strain 
and worry of the daily balance. To spend minutes and 
gray matter hunting for three cents or eight cents 
usually ends in despair of the whole business. It has 
been usual in books on household accounts to lay great 
stress on this daily balance, treating the family ex- 
penditure on the regular bookkeeping basis. But this 
is a wrong stress. If a few cents are unaccounted for, 
what is there to worry about ? At the end of the year 
that few cents and the others that are missing will have 
to be deducted from Savings or provided from some of 
the surpluses. But even five cents a day only amounts 
to $18.25 a year, and if the income is $3,000 that is only 
roughly speaking % of 1%. Frankly, that unac- 
counted sum is negligible in the face of the value of the 
classified account that has been kept, and is not worth 
the sacrifice of several hours and a good deal of peace 
of mind. From the accounting point of view this is 
heresy, but from the family point of view it is com- 
monsense. 

Of course if the unaccounted amount is several dol- 
lars instead of several cents, and if this deficit occurs 



WHY AND WHAT ACCOUNTS ? 87 

frequently, the matter becomes serious. The housewife 
beginning to record her expenditure would do well to 
make for a time at least a weekly balance. This is easy, 
with the system of accounts recommended here, as the 
little temporary notebook will show all cash expendi- 
ture for the week, and a page can be given to cash 
received, so that the balance is quickly made. Add cash 
on hand and cash received during the week, add cash 
expenditure, subtract the latter from the former and 
see how much of that amount is on hand in cash. If 
the difference is $1 a week, a daily balance should be 
tried for a little until the inexperienced accountant has 
trained herself to record expenditure more carefully. 
It is easier to look back over the expenditure of one day 
than over that of one week. When the week's balance 
is fairly even, change to a monthly balance and when 
that is fairly even, change to the yearly balance. There 
are those who temperamentally enjoy making or try- 
ing to make an exact balance, but those who dislike it 
and find it time-consuming should not feel pangs of con- 
science over their failure when the yearly deficit is less 
than 1% of the income. There are few even of those 
who find the balance most difiicult who will not find 
the unaccounted-for sum lessened as they acquire the 
habit of noting expenditures. But household account- 
ing may be entirely adequate to the needs of the family 
even if it would not pass as perfect with the bookkeeper. 



88 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WOETH 

The bugbear of the daily balance disposed of, let 
us go further and say that accounts should be inter- 
esting — even entertaining. They should not require 
much time; a half an hour a week is usually ample, 
aside from the jotting down of cash expenditure as it 
occurs. But the record should be so interesting that 
the one who keeps it is tempted to linger over and study 
it, to make little reckonings as to probabilities, and to 
find pleasure in working out possible choices and ad- 
justments. To do this the accounts must not only be 
classified, as the adoption of a budget requires, but also 
itemized. It is not enough to enter under Clothing- 
Shoes 

June 25 2.25 

" 29 .75 

July 15 12.50 

The entriesl should tell a story, like this 

June 25 Tan sneakers 2.25 

" 29 1 black shoe half-soled .75 

July 15 White bucks 12.50 

'An account should answer in the shortest possible 
time any question one wishes to ask about past expendi- 
ture. The rarest question of all usually is "How much 
have we spent altogether so far this year?" In the 



WHY AND WHAT ACCOUNTS? 89 

system recommended here that can be answered only 
by adding a nnmber of totals, and will take ten or 
fifteen minutes. But ^'How much have we spent on food 
so far this year, or this month, or this week ?" can be 
answered by a single addition, taking but a moment. 
"When did you get that bro-^vii coat? Have you worn 
it three seasons or four?" Clothing-Coats and Wraps 
for the individual in question answers that instantly. 
"How much stationery should we order to last until 
summer ?" is answered easily from the Stationery card, 
with its record of the date and amount of the last order. 
"What did the j)orch chair cost ?" Care of House-Fur- 
nishings tells you in a moment. "Have we overspent 
on Food so far this year?" is answered quickly from 
the Food account, and a little figuring as to the monthly 
allowance multiplied by the number of months that 
have passed. "When," "what" and "how much" — all 
questions beginning with any one of these words are 
answerable by good accounts. "Why" begins subtler 
questions, but questions and answers alike arise as 
one lingers over the story of the family life, told in the 
record of dollars and cents. 

Those who are keeping a budget for the first time 
should certainly check up, even if roughly, at the end 
of the first three months. List all headings, just in 
pencil on a big sheet, and head two columns Overspent 
and Underspent. Add the amount under each head- 



90 GETTIIsTG YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

ing, compare it with one-fourth the amount allowed for 
the year, put the difference under Underspent if the 
full amount has not been spent, under Overspent if 
there is an overamount. Put in both columns for an 
account that exactly balances. Expenditure in many 
items must be irregular. If the accounts begin Janu- 
ary 1 and the family pays its income tax in one amount, 
the sum for the whole year appears in the three-months 
account as three-fourths Overspent. But perhaps the 
fire insurance is paid yearly and in July, in which case 
on March 31 there is one-quarter of the whole sum in 
the Underspent column. When all are calculated, add 
the two columns. If Overspent is more than Under- 
spent, run through the items and see whether this is 
justifiable. Perhaps the family expenditure January- 
March is legitimately more than in any other quarter, 
but it is well to make sure. If Savings is Underspent 
the difference between the amount saved and the amount 
planned should be treated as a deficit. 

The time taken for this checking up is not great, and 
repetition at the end of the second and third quarters 
of the year will help bring a better result at the end 
of the year. Although this process is more necessary 
to the family inexperienced in budgets, it is one in- 
variably of value to the experienced. 

Many find it helpful to put on the accounts with the 
heading not only the budget amount (as directed in 



WHY AND WHAT ACCOUNTS? 91 

the next chapter) but also the monthlj amount. Then 
checking can be quickly made at the end of any month 
by multiplying- the monthly alloAvance by the number 
of the months recorded. As most people do not enjoy 
addition, multiplication and subtraction in and for 
themselves, it is well to adopt any device that lessens 
the amount of this work to be done. It is not at all 
a bad idea to ask the children to do some of this divi- 
sion. $125 a year for clothing sounds like a huge sum 
to Johnny, but when he finds that is only $10.41 a 
month and that his winter underclothing alone costs more 
than half that, he begins to realize that the item Cloth- 
ing eats up a lot of money in other things than suits, 
coats, hats and shoes. And when he finds that at the 
end of the first three months his clothing allowance for 
that time is overspent by nearly a whole month's al- 
lowance, he may even grow more careful in the care 
of the clothing he already has ! 



VII 

HOW TO KEEP ACCOUNTS 

The crucial question is how to keep accounts so that 
they will answer the questions one wishes to ask, and 
yet will not be a nuisance, a burden, or a time-consum- 
ing task. 

The forms available for household accounting are 
numerous. The greater number are books with col- 
umns two ways on the page, one for the heading and 
one for the days of the month. There are several ob- 
jections to this type of account. First, they do not 
allow itemized accounting under a single heading. It 
is not easy to trace back the Clothing items and to find 
when a certain article was bought or its cost. They give 
a total to date, of the whole expenditure and of each 
heading. But (the second objection) they do not offer 
space enough for the detailed headings strongly recom- 
mended in this book. The grouping of headings dif- 
fers with different compilers, but there is invariably 
grouping of some sort, and almost always the repre- 
hensible Miscellaneous or Sundries. The third objec- 
tion is that the squared spaces and the following of 

lines across a page are not easy to the person unused 

92 



HOW TO KEEP ACCOUNTS 93 

to bookkeeping, and are very frequently confusing to 
the eye and bewildering to the mind. 

If the family is to keep detailed accounts under the 
headings chosen to fit its own needs, no printed form 
with headings can be used. The family must use either 
a card or a loose leaf system, each card or leaf with its 
own head and perhaps subhead. Whether the card or 
the leaf shall be chosen is chiefly a matter of tempera- 
ment. The card is undoubtedly the most compact and 
economical form, economizing both time and storage 
space. But there are some people to whom a card file 
of any sort is anathema, and these prefer the loose 
leaves, fastened into covers. In giving directions for 
accounts this book will speak in the terms of the card, 
but whatever applies to that applies equally to the 
loose leaf. Accounts are kept on either in exactly the 
same way, and cards and leaves arranged alphabetically. 
In actual use the card is easier not only because most 
people turn to a given heading in a card file quicker 
than to one in a book, but because it is easier to slip 
the card from the file to study or to make entries than it 
is to handle the page of the book. It is also less trouble 
to add new cards than new leaves. But for the person 
finding the leaves easier, their use is an economy. E'o 
attempt should be made to keep the accounts in a blank 
note-book, with headings for each page or series of 
pages. This is sure to mean an undue allowance of 



94 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

space under one head and not enough under another, 
and ne!w headings or subheadings cannot be added easily. 
It is also difficult to work out index edges that will 
enable one to turn rapidly to the heading wanted. There 
is no advantage to the book unless it be that a book is 
harder to lose than a card or leaf, but as the account 
file is kept in or on desk or writing table, there is no 
reason to fear loss. 

The first provision for account keeping is for the 
record of cash as spent. For this purpose there must 
be paper and pencil at hand. If the housewife pays 
some money out at the kitchen door, the best arrange- 
ment is probably a small cheap pad hung in some con- 
venient place, with pencil secured to it by a string. 
For marketing a small cheap note-book is best, as a 
single sheet of paper is apt to get mussed or even lost. 
If the keeper of accounts resembles most women, she 
has several purses or bags to use on different occasions. 
Then each of these should be provided with a little 
book, such as can often be bought for a penny each, 
and a short pencil with protected point. The only safety 
for the account keeper is to jot down expenditure as 
soon as it is made. If marketing, the note-book should 
be taken out with the money, and the item entered — 
the date, in the shortest form, the briefest indication 
of the item and the amount. It takes but an instant. 
If one buys a pair of shoes it is not necessary to put 



HOW TO KEEP ACCOUNTS 95 

down more than "Shoes." When recorded permanently 
they may be "Tan sport shoes" or "Black walking 
boots" or "Gray suede pumps" but the briefest indica- 
tion is enough to recall to the memory the details of 
the purchase. If Food is kept as one general heading, 
that word is enough to go down in the note-book, but 
if the headings Food-Vegetables and Food-Meat, Fish, 
Poultry are used, then one jots down "Veg." or "Fish," 
as the case may be. Carfare goes down as one rides, 
and the newspaper bought on the street goes down the 
next time one opens the book. It is a help worth noting 
to fasten together with a clip the used pages of each 
note-book, so that the book opens to the page to be 
used next. 

The second provision is the cards themselves. Those 
approximately 4x6 inches are the best, being small 
enough to allow (in two columns) 26 entries on each 
side of the card. They are best ruled like the cards 
illustrated, but if such ruling is not to be had, it is 
a simple matter to buy the cards without any vertical 
lines, and to rule (preferably in red ink) the one double 
(central) and six single lines needed. There must be 
a card for every heading and one for every subheading. 
There should be an extra supply for Budget, Assets, In- 
come, and additional cards. An initial purchase of 100 
will allow a good margin. Each Clothing budget — for 
each member of the family, that is — will take eight 



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98 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

cards, so that five people use forty cards. When the 
cards are bought, get also one or two dozen guide cards, 
"fifths ;" that is, blue or yellow cards 4x6, with a pro- 
■^jecting tab at the top that is one-fifth the length of 
the card. 

On the top line of each card, at the extreme left, 
should be printed or very plainly written the heading. 
If there is a subhead, both names go on, with a dash 
between as, for example, Clothing-Accessories, Cloth- 
ing-Underwear. This is to ensure an alphabetic ar- 
rangement of the budget divisions. Another dash fol- 
lows, and the year; as, for example, Clothing-Under- 
wear-1922 (or if the calendar year is not used, 1922- 
23). Then at the extreme right of the line, write the 
amount allowed in the budget. Where there are sub- 
heads, as in Clothing, put this figure on only one card, 
the one that comes first in the alphabetical order. It is 
a help in using the Clothing cards to color the tops dif- 
ferently for different members of the family — red ink 
for one, blue for another, green for a third, black for a 
fourth. This makes it easier to put back into the file 
in the right place any card removed for entry or con- 
sultation. 

The system is flexible and allows the temporary adop- 
tion of subheads when these seem worth while. For 
example, if the cost of the meat used has a tendency to 
mount too rapidly during the winter, a card can be 



HOW TO KEEP ACCOUNTS 



99 



written for Food-Meat N'ov. 1922-reb. 1923, the note 
being written just below; Other months on main Food 
card. A subhead adopted and later judged useless is 



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The cards are spread a little to show the arrangement of 
headings. When the Clothing cards of the little daughter Bar- 
bara end, another guide lettered "Clothing (A.B. )" begins the 
mother's record. 

quickly got rid of by adding the total to the card with 
the main heading, and filing the itemized account in 
Used Cards. 

The card containing the Budget is better placed at 
the beginning, before the alphabetic file. The Income 



100 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

card or cards may follow it or may be put into the alpha- 
betic file. This card, by the way, is conveniently kept 
in two divisions (either different columns, different 
sides of one card or different cards) for income on which 
tax must be paid and for that which is exempt. The 
latter must of course be reported in the income tax re- 
turn, but the separation has to be made there, and time 
is saved if it is made currently. The Assets cards are 
more conveniently kept clipped together at the back 
of the file, as they are not used with any frequency. 
Extra cards of record, such as the record of bonds 
described in Chapter XV, or a card for Loans, or any 
other item relating to expense, are filed into the alpha- 
bet for easy reference. 

Arrange this file, then select headings for the guide 
cards. The first, with the tab at the extreme left, is 
naturally Accounts, then the next, "whose tab falls 
just to the right, may be Clothing. The one with the 
middle tab may be Food, the one whose tab falls just 
to the right of it Income, the one whose tab falls at 
the extreme right Postage. The exact headings chosen 
are not so important, but the guides should be so ar- 
ranged that one does not hide another and the head- 
ings chosen should be among those often used. They 
greatly facilitate the finding of the cards needed. At 
the back of the file place the blank cards that are left, 
and the unused guides. Complete the file by placing 



HOW TO KEEP ACCOUNTS 101 

at the very front a piece of blotting paper cut to the 
size of the cards. 

The cards may of course be strapped together with 
a heavy rubber band or a narrow elastic, but they are 
easier to use and suffer less from wear and tear if they 
are kept in a regular file box. These are obtainable in 
wood, the outside measurements being approximately 
QV2 X 5M6 X 3%. Such a box will hold the cards for 
the accounts of a family of five for at least three 
years, perhaps more. Select a box with a hinged cover, 
rather than an uncovered box (allowing dust to settle 
on the cards) or one with a removable cover, which is 
easily misplaced and not as easily replaced on the box 
without damage to the guides. The box can easily be 
decorated by a coat or two of coach paint, some stencils 
and a coat of white shellac. A gay account box has a 
certain psychological effect. If the box seems at the 
moment an extravagance, a box or tray can be contrived 
of a small wooden or strong pasteboard box of approxi- 
mately the right size. The sides should be high enough 
to hold the cards upright, but low enough to allow the 
handling of the top of the cards from the side ; a good 
height is three inches. All these details may seem 
trivial, but it is very important to make the machinery 
of account keeping as easy as possible to use. Some of 
the details have other importance. For example, if 
the year date is left off the top line of any card, con- 



102 GETTING YOUE MONEY^S WOETH 

fusion may result several years later, when one wants 
to look up the details of earlier expenditure. 

With the file and notebooks all ready — well before 
the date of beginning the accounts — the first day sees 
pencil entries in one or more of the notebooks. Let this 
run on for a week, then at a stated time (not necessary, 
but on the whole easier), enter on the cards all the 
items of the week. Collect all the notebooks and the 
sheets from the kitchen pad. Perhaps there has 
been some odd note during the week, in which case the 
natural place to drop the paper containing it is the Ac- 
counts box, in front of the file. (Here go any temporary 
notes regarding accounts, such as a loan to be repaid in 
a day or two.) Then there is the check-book, which has 
been used also, perhaps, as is advised in Chapter XIV. 
Gather them all and enter the data. Obviously the 
entries cannot be made in a sprawling or careless hand. 
A printing such as is represented in the illustrations is 
easily acquired and economizes space, but any neat 
small hand will do. Ink should be used, as the mark 
of even a hard pencil is rubbed when tlie cards are 
handled. 

In the first column goes the date — not the year, since 
that is at the top of the card, but the month (or abbrevi- 
ation) and the day. Where several purchases of the 
week can be classed together, there is no point in giving 
separate entry to the several items because they were 



HOW TO KEEP ACCOUNTS 103 

on different days. For example, during the week be- 
ginning July 6 vegetables may have been bought every 
day but Sunday. The entry is then not detailed, but 
under Food- Vegetables "July 6-11 3.14." In such a 
case of detailed subhead, the card may even have its 
entries run along with a cumulating total, as is described 
under Postage in Chapter V. If matches were bought 
on July 8 and kerosene for the oil stove on Jidy 10 the 
entry under Fuel reads 

July 8-10 Matches .13 5 Kerosene .85 .97 

Or, if there is no danger of failing to identify entries 
in case of doubt, the month alone may be used 

July Matches .12 5 Kerosene .85 .97 

Economy of space is desirable and many devices there 
are to obtain it. 

One of these is for such frequent small expenditures 
as newspapers or magazines bought away from home, 
the small fees paid for polishing shoes, the cost of send- 
ing parcel post packages. In any of these cases a slip 
of paper clipped to the hach of the proper card in the 
Accounts enables one to note these expenses here as they 
occur and then occasionally to make one entry such as : 

Nov.-Dec. (Single) Newspapers .43 
Feb.-April Shoes polished .60 






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106 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

When a column is filled, the addition should be made 
at once and the total written in at the head of the next 
column. In this way the totals are never far behind. 
,When one side of the card is used, turn and use the 
other, writing in the heading as at first. When a second 
card becomes necessary, it is better to put after the 
year another dash and the figure 2 — or 3, for a third 
card. Tor example : 

Food-Fruit— 1922— 2 

When one card is filled and the total transfen-ed to 
the top of the first column of the next, put the filled 
card (alphabetically) into a file at the back, with a 
guide in front marked Used Cards. It is convenient to 
fasten these together with a large clip or strong rubber 
band, so that there is no danger of other cards being 
mixed in. After a year or two there will be a con- 
siderable cumulation of these cards, but the alphabetic 
arrangement (and under the alphabet a chronological 
order) will enable one to look up a back item 
quickly. 

At the end of the year add the total of each card, and 
in the case of a heading with subheads, the totals of all 
these, on one of the cards that has space enough for 
this. Clothing-Accessories is a good one to use for 
Clothing. If a year's entries fill only half the card or 
less, the card should be used for the next year also, the 
year and (if necessary) the budget allowance being writ- 



HOW TO KEEP ACCOUNTS 107 

ten at the beginning of the account. A card such as 
Clothing-Jewelry should last any one several years. The 
use of the cards in this way not only economizes in 
cards and storage space, but facilitates comparison be- 
tween year and year. 

When all the cards are totaled, write into the space 
left for the purpose on the Budget card, opposite each 
heading, and next the sum assigned it, the actual ex- 
penditure. Total the columns and compare the Budget 
total with the Accounts total. Have regard to Savings 
in doing this, since if this shows any deficit, the result 
is not right even if the totals are evenly balanced. The 
card is now the Budget-Summary card for that year. 
The budget for the next year is of course made tenta- 
tively before the accounts for the current year can be 
closed, but the Budget-Summary card should be studied 
carefully to see "whether it is in any way a stimulus to 
revision of the tentative budget. It is well not to write 
the new Budget card — or perhaps to leave some items in 
pencil — until the Budget-Summary card can be studied 
a little. 

The Assets card comes next, and is easily made on the 
basis of the one with which the family began. The dif- 
ference between the total of the Assets of one year and 
that of the next should equal the Savings of the year 
(including the reduction of debt) plus any larger 
amount of cash on hand. When the comparison is 
made here, a discrepancy is at once discerned, unless in 



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110 GETTING YOUR MONEY^S WORTH 

the rare case where the account keeper has balanced ac- 
curately and without relapse. The difference is the 
amount of money unaccounted for, dealt with earlier in 
the chapter. If Savings have had their due share, this 
deficit is not important, and could fairly be assigned to 
one or two or three of the larger headings. If the de- 
ficit is more than 1% of the income, as has been pointed 
out before, the accountant will be wise to establish or 
continue the habit of a weekly balance, even if Savings 
has not suffered. Otherwise one or more of the budget 
items may be getting an undue share of the sum not 
accounted for. 

When the accounts are made up, the full cards, or 
those that obviously would not last through a second 
year, should be filed with Used Cards, and new cards 
for the current year written at once. 

A file of receipts is part of any system of accounts. 
As is said in Chapter XIV if a bill is paid by check the 
returned check is sufficient receipt. All other receipts 
are conveniently kept alphabetically by the name of the 
creditor and those of one year together, so that after 
the number of years during which debt is collectible, 
they may be destroyed without examination, as in the 
case of bank checks. 

A practical help in keeping watch of accounts due 
is a monthly slip list of payments to be met during the 
month. One form is made by clipping together three 



HOW TO KEEP ACCOUNTS 111 

slips of paper. The top one is about an inch wide and 
two or three inches long. On it are written near the 
right margin the headings of the regular monthly pay- 
ments — for example, Rent, House, Fuel, Service, Tele- 
phone. This is clipped to a slip about three inches 
square. At the top of this is written the date : Sept. 1, 
1922. Opposite each heading is the amount that month 
will call for. On the right are written any special 
charges due that month, such as Dentist, Fire Insur- 
ance. The third slip is about three by five, so that 
when the three are clipped together it projects two 
inches below the others, and on this are payments due 
some time ahead, such as 

Oct. 1 Life Insurance 
Oct. 15 Hospital pledge 
Nov. 20 Interest E. K. 

This third slip does not need to be changed monthly, 
and the top slip only when it grows soiled. If these are 
put into a letter clip, unpaid bills can be slipped in be- 
hind them, and other possible causes of expenditure, 
such as the appeal to contribute to a relief fund. Obliga- 
tions that must be met in the near future can thus be 
easily checked. 

Any person keeping accounts will make some varia- 
tions from the procedure as outlined here, or from any 
procedure set forth by another person. But this par- 



112 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

ticular routine is the result of years of experience, and 
of the experience of many individuals. If it is observed 
carefully at first, many a pitfall will be avoided, and the 
practice of it will give judgment as to the adjustment 
the individual may wish to make. The procedure* is 
certainly not perfect, and any one may hope to improve 
it, but it is practical and effectual as it stands. 



VIII 
ON EEADJUSTING 

The subject of readjustment of the items of the 
budget has already been dealt with incidentally several 
times, but its importance is sufficient to warrant further 
study of it. Especially by those who have made a bud- 
get for the first time and are conscientious in trying to 
hold to it, readjustment may be magnified into some- 
thing of undue importance. In order to put it into its 
due place, one must consider why it is ever necessary, 
how often it must be considered, and on what principles 
it is to be made. Readjustment does not necessarily 
show poor original planning, but may show intelligent 
planning from day to day. The income available sets a 
limit to expenditure; the budget is the plan for the most 
desirable distribution of this (necessarily) limited 
amount. What are the circumstances that make neces- 
sary a change in the plan ? 

The first and most difficult to meet is a falling off 

in the income. This may occur without any fault on the 

part of an individual — a bank fails, a business concern 

goes into bankruptcy, a factory is closed, or sold to 

113 



114 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

those who change the staff, a period of economic de- 
pression throws a large number out of employment, a 
prolonged illness means resigning a position, or at least 
going without salary or wage for a time, a payment of 
dividends is "passed," which is a polite way of saying 
that it is never made. It is obvious that the Savings 
fund for emergencies is important in such cases, and 
has kept many a family from serious deprivation. But 
even where the Savings fund is a generous one, it can- 
not wisely be used to replace income without some at- 
tempt to cut down the expenditure planned when the 
income seemed secure. 

Here it is impossible to be definite as to what a given 
family should do. Naturally, health must be pre- 
served. It has already been pointed out that the con- 
valescent may wisely spend a. considerable amount to 
regain health, and that this may rightly be considered 
an investment. Clothing cannot be sacrificed too much 
for the wage or salary earners, who must be suitably 
dressed for their work. But undoubtedly poor judg- 
ment is used in this matter many times. The current 
American theory seems to be that it is a help to pros- 
perity to seem to be more prosperous than one is, but 
such a theory of deceit is apt to have more bad effect 
on the person living by it than it can have good effect 
on those whom he hopes to impress. Rent is an item 



ON READJUSTING 115 

that often cannot be cut down to any advantage, if the 
income is to return to normal soon. The cost of mov- 
ing is usually great, not only in the actual money spent, 
but in the damage done to one's possessions. The sav- 
ing necessary can generally be best effected by cutting- 
down a little every item that can be cut. Savings can- 
not be made during such a period, and the larger the 
sum that was to be saved, the less must be cut from the 
other items. 

The psychology of the situation is interesting. To be 
left unexpectedly without an expected income is to most 
people depressing. "Having a good time" is a natural 
reaction, and involves for most people the spending of 
money that certainly ought not to be used at such a 
time if there is any other way to conquer depression. 
There is another "way; making a game of seeing how 
little one can spend. Especially to Americans this does 
not sound like a very amusing game, but the determined 
cheerfulness and courage of many a woman has led her 
family to play it with zest. It is the woman — the wife 
and mother or the sister at the head of the household — 
who usually has this part to play, and probably the ani- 
mation and zeal she has imparted to it has led to the 
accusation that women enjoy petty economies, some- 
what contradicting the other accusation that women, 
having no sense of the value of money, enjoy spending 



116 GETTIN^G YOUR MONEY'S WOETH 

for its own sake. This particular game, bj the way, 
may be a very enjoyable one in retrospect. When the 
family is once more normally prosperous, it is great fun 
to say: "Do you remember how — ?" That is, it can 
be great fun if the family considered it a game at the 
time. If they did not, they are more apt to wish to 
forget such disagreeable expedients, and even to be 
ashamed of them. 

The next cause for readjustment is a rise in prices 
that really lessens the income, by lessening its purchas- 
ing power. Such a rise may be general and continuing, 
as always happens during a period of that destruction 
we call war, and during a considerable period after the 
war is over. In such a case there must be a general cut- 
ting down everywhere that cutting down is possible. 
That this can be done was proved in an almost spec- 
tacular way during the Great War of 1914-18. In 
every country families found that despite sharp rises 
in price they were (at least at first) able to give more 
to help those in desperate need than they had ever 
thought they could spare in times when their income 
was more than double in purchasing power that of the 
war days. And at least in these United States the sav- 
ings of the mass of the people increased out of all pro- 
portion to any rise in wages or salary or — except for 
the comparatively small group of the profiteers — in 
profits. !N'ot only were the enormous amounts of the 



ON EEADJUSTING 117 

Liberty and Victory bond issues raised largely through 
the subscriptions of those who had never bought a bond 
before, but the deposits in the savings banks increased 
heavily at the same time. 

True, w^hen the v^ar closed and the people looked for 
a return of the old conditions, there wsls a demoralizing 
relaxation and many people indulged in undue spending. 
This was followed, naturally, by a reaction in what has 
been sometimes (inaccurately) called the "buyer's 
strike," when producers and retailers found themselves 
unable to get rid of their merchandise except at a money 
loss. And both the relaxation and the reaction have de- 
layed the return of the normal conditions of peace. All 
this in miniature can easily happen to an individual 
family, unless it applies clear thinking to its prob- 
lems. It is a common story. Father loses his job, and 
the family rebelliously accepts simpler food, fewer new 
clothes, cheaper amusements. Then Father gets a new 
job and the family, with an injured sense of having 
been long deprived of its rights, buys an automobile or 
gets a lot of expensive clothes all around. But not the 
family whose members are trained through budget mak- 
ing to choices that will make for their greatest happi- 
ness. The budget does not give high ideals to those 
who have none, but it does give a chance to every little 
ideal of any kind to poke its head up and claim its 
share of attention, and the attention given to them all 



118 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

is unquestionably greater than thej would have received 
without this chance. 

The two causes already dealt with were general : the 
third cause is particular. Some one item may demand 
unforeseen expenditure. The rent may be raised before 
the budget year is over, as happened to uncounted 
thousands in 1919 and 1920. If the raise in rents is 
general, as it was at the time named, and because there 
were not houses or rooms enough to go around, then 
moving to a lower-priced house or apartment may not 
be possible. If it is individual, because the desirability 
of the neighborhood has been enhanced or because a 
new landlord thinks he can get more from his tenants, 
then moving may be the wisest way out. That must 
be studied carefully. But if the increased rent is to 
be paid, either the income must be increased or other 
items must be deprived of some of their allowance. 

The increase of income is not always out of the 
question. Perhaps the boys of the family, anxious to 
stay in a neighborhood they like, can themselves earn the 
extra amount by Saturday work for the grocer or tak- 
ing paper routes, or some other of the boy methods of 
earning a little money. In many places there are simi- 
lar opportunities open to the girls. But it must be 
clearly understood, if this solution is adopted, that it is 
the deliberate choice of the boys or girls who are to 
earn the extra money, and that the money when earned 



ON EEADJUSTING 119 

does not belong to them but to the landlord. Their pleas- 
ure is in continuing in the present home, not in having 
extra money for ribbons or the movies. And it is 
hardly necessary to point out that such work cannot 
be undertaken if in any way it interferes with either 
health or education. Where it does not, it is a valuable 
educational aid in itself, teaching the children not only 
the cost of money in time, energy and intelligence, but 
also making more clear their own share in the coopera- 
tive life of the household. 

Other individual emergencies arise, usually a single 
expense rather than a permanently larger one like in- 
creased rent. A dress may be ruined by accident, some 
expensive piece of household equipment may give out 
without warning, a storm may ruin the curtains be- 
cause the windows were left open, the gas company, the 
electric power company or the telephone company may 
increase rates, a relative or friend may need money 
help. Life offers a succession of such happenings to 
any but an abnormal family. Emergencies are not 
something to lose one's head over; they are to be ex- 
pected as part of the game of living, and life is to be 
suspected if it does not provide them. They come often- 
est in matters that money cannot affect — in the clash 
of temperaments, the need for compromise, the accept- 
ance of some physical or mental limitation, the sacrifice 
necessary for true cooperation in the community. When 



130 GETTING YOUR MONEY^S \VORTH 

they are emergencies affecting expenditure, they must 
be met like the rise in Rent, by lessening other items as 
judiciously as one can. 

Minor adjustments can be made without any general 
consultation, but the larger ones should be discussed as 
fully as the original apportionment. It cannot be said 
too often that every one in the family should face the 
necessity of choice, and help to choose. This will not 
bring the millennium of contentment as by magic, but it 
will make progress toward it possible, and the wise ad- 
ministrator of the household can further that progress 
by her own attitude and her patient reasoning with the 
impatience so natural to all of us when we cannot have 
what we want. 

The time to make readjustment is as soon as the un- 
foreseen expenditure is seen as inevitable. If only minor 
causes affect the change in items, it is wise for the ad- 
ministrator to check up at the end of three months or 
six months, as described in Chapter VI and where she 
feels it necessary, to call a family conference. 

One cause of readjustment remains, the very pleas- 
ant one of an unexpected increase in income. What 
shall be done when that comes ? We all know from ob- 
servation that frequently what is done is to indulge in 
a very orgy of spending. Under such circumstances the 
family and perhaps every individual member feels — 
rather than thinks — that it or he or she should at once 



ON" EEADJUSTING 121 

get scmething long desired. A natural feeling, and 
one to be gratified if it can be managed. But the 
difficulty of course is tbat the family wants a great 
many more things than that extra money can possibly 
buy. And probably every member of it old enough to 
have experience in what can be had in exchange for 
money could spend all of it on himself or herself alone 
without any difficulty if selfishness directed the choices. 
There is only one way to get what everybody wants 
most — budget the added amount, readjusting the old 
budget in the combined light of experience and desire. 

Yet even though their choice is their right, how can 
one refrain from a word of warning? There are two 
items that call imperatively for their share of the in- 
crease. Savings and Gifts for the public good are con- 
sidered first, to be sure that they are increased propor- 
tionally before any other item gets a dollar. And for 
each, but especially for Savings, one can hardly help a 
special plea. It is so much easier to increase them when 
the income is increased than to do so by cutting down 
expenditure under the old income. And they are grate- 
ful for every little help. At 4% even an added $500 
will bring in $20 a year, and if the interest is allowed to 
accumulate half yearly, in five years the sum will be 
$623.09, in ten years, $740.12. 

If the first impulse of the family is to move to a 
more expensive home, can they not postpone the move 



122 GETTmCr YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

for a year and tuck away that extra rent in Savings? 
Unless the family has suffered actual deprivation, has 
it not been fairly happy in the present home? Why 
abandon it so hastily? If the house is owned, but is 
too small for the family needs, cannot the selling of it 
or the planning of the new eU wait while the family dis- 
cusses every detail and enjoys to the full the pleasure of 
planning ? If Clothing calls with a loud voice, naming 
furs and silk stockings and Trench hats and custom- 
made shoes, is it not well to figure a little before answer- 
ing the call? Clothing must have something, by all 
means, but it is apt to become too greedy. 

The consideration of the budget calls for thinking, and 
the pleasant emotions roused by the new possibilities of 
more money need not die because the mind gets to 
work a little. Anticipation is a large part of pleasure. 
The family gets a lot of fun out of feeling rich for a 
little while, even if the calm consideration of the actual 
figures of the budget brings them back to the realization 
that though their limits have been set a little farther out, 
they are very decidedly limits still. 



THE INCOME BESIDES MONEY 

In the budget the income of the family represented 
by money is all that can be noted, yet the family must 
never forget that it has other income on which it should 
reckon. Every member of the family has time, energy, 
experience and ability. In time every one theoretically 
has the same amount — twenty-four hours a day — ^but 
as each person has a certain amount mortgaged to sleep, 
eating, dressing, and either education or vocation, the 
margin of free time left to one individual may differ 
much from that left to another. And in the use of the 
margin what would be for one person sheer waste of 
time may for another prove of great creative value. It 
is comparatively easy to judge whether a person wastes 
time on a manual task, though not always so easy to 
prove how far the task itself is worth doing. It is hard 
to judge when time spent in preparation for a piece of 
creative work is well spent. These problems are for 
the individual concerned. If he or she is to get far, 
honesty in facing the question is essential. 

It is for example easy to criticize the artist who 
lounges and smokes all day, and once in a while paints 

123 



124 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

a picture. Perhaps he is really lazy and is making an 
excuse of the necessity for being ''ready" when he puts 
brush to canvas. Perhaps, on the other hand, he is 
quite justified, and that is the only way he, with his 
abilities and temperament, can do his best work. It is 
easy too to condemn the housewife who is constantly 
and complacently telling that she is not a slave to her 
work, and finds plenty of free time to work or play out- 
side her own home, when one knows that her family has 
hastily prepared meals, with extravagant marketing and 
perhaps even poor cooking, that her children's clothing 
shows lack of care in repair and cleaning, that the hou«e 
is untidy and not overclean, and that the family is 
always in debt. But it is not so easy to judge of the 
housewife who, with limited physical strength and so 
of working time, intelligently omits or neglects some 
of the household routine that seems to most of us essen- 
tial in order that she may have time free for what rests 
her and makes life livable. If people keep out of money 
debt, and in no way injure themselves or their chil- 
dren morally, it is hard to justify public opinion in 
condemning them for letting the children go barefoot 
or having no shades at their windows or eating in the 
kitchen. If a family has decided what its ovm values 
are, it has a right to live according to its own scale — 
always granting that it has met its own debt to society. 



THE INCOME BESIDES MONEY 125 

And it is worth noting that the worst failures in any 
community are oftener those of families who have made 
every effort to live like their much richer neighbors than 
of families who have disregarded public opinion in mat- 
ters (other than morals) that affect social standing. 

Time and energy have to be considered together, and 
used as each family or individual judges best. Ability 
and experience also go hand in hand, and on them the 
family or individual should draw freely. Both improve 
by use, and both make time and energy more fruitful. 
All four — ^time, energy, ability, experience — are ex- 
pressed in an income known to economists as "the labor 
income." Every individual does some things for him- 
self that he might get some one else to do. There are 
a few people who have maids or valets to care for their 
clothing, dress them and generally relieve them of that 
"buttoning and unbuttoning" that the Frenchman of 
the story found so wearing that he killed himself to 
escape it. But only an imbecile or a helpless invalid 
does no part of the work for himself. And the over- 
whelming majority of people not only dress themselves 
and take care of their own clothing, but count on them- 
selves or some member of their family to clean their 
clothing, mend it, even make it. All this work is labor 
income. So is that of the household processes of clean- 
ing, caring for food, cooking, sewing, dish-washing, bed- 



126 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WOETH 

making, washing of clothing and house linen, and the 
thousand minor tasks that claim the attention of every 
housekeeper. 

This labor income of the household routine is con- 
tributed chiefly by the woman at the head of the house, 
often, and especially in large families, with the assist- 
ance of the other women of the family. In pioneer days 
there was a large contribution from the men and boys — 
the "chores" that are still an important element in 
country life. Wood to saw and split and to carry to the 
wood box, water to bring from the well, the cows to 
milk, the horse to feed, the paths to clear — these are 
ever-recurring and insistent tasks. As city life or city 
conditions become established, the wood changes to coal, 
to be brought from the cellar to the kitchen stove ; the 
furnace is to be cared for, but there is no water to 
bring, no cow to milk, no horse to feed. Conditions 
change still more and the kitchen stove uses gas from 
a pipe or electricity carried on wires, and the apartment 
is steam heated, from a central plant the householder 
never sees. Even the "tinkering" necessary in any 
home — a shelf to put up, a chair to mend, a bucket 
handle to replace — is often better done by the janitor 
of the apartment or the handyman of the neighborhood 
than by the man of the house. The janitor or the 
handyman has the tools, and a place in which to work, 
and the facility that comes from practice. And when 



THE INCOME BESIDES MONEY 127 

the janitor changes in type and no longer does odd jobs, 
and the handyman who works for a low wage disappears, 
then the carpenter, the upholsterer and the tinsmith re- 
place them. The money cost is not great — only 25 cents 
for putting up the shelf, only 50 cents for mending the 
chair, only 15 cents for mending the handle. But 90 
cents of the family income goes to pay these little items, 
formerly paid by the labor income of the family, and 
presently these conditions make it possible for the 
workers — who need and should have more money, to 
meet the rising costs of living — to charge $1.80 for the 
work, and the family wonders where its money goes. 
Any household task that is given up by the members of 
it costs money that seems to most of them unjustified. 
They quite commonly declaim against the "robbery" of 
those who do what they could so easily do for them- 
selves, and which, incidentally, they would be entirely 
unwilling to do for others at the price they themselves 
are asked to pay. 

The economic effect of this on the family is bad, 
since the income is lessened without due return, but 
there is a moral effect too. Where is the cooperation in 
this cooperative group ? Father and Mother do it all, 
but even there only too often the cooperation is imper- 
fect. Father is busy all day working hard to earn 
money to pay the family bills. When he comes home 
at night he is tired, and he does not want to bother even 



138 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

to put up a shelf. He "works hard enough to pay a car- 
penter to do that. But far more than this, lie does not 
want to bother with the problems Mother has to face 
in spending the income or in the education and training 
of the children. That is all her job: why can't she 
let him alone, when he is slaving as hard as he knows 
how to get that weekly pay envelope or that monthly 
check, or that quarterly share of profits ? So Father 
is aggrieved because he is giving so much and is asked 
to give more, Mother is aggrieved because the whole 
responsibility is put upon her and yet she is criticized 
sometimes for the way she exercises it. And in such a 
family the children are pretty sure to be aggrieved 
because they cannot have all they want, and to be 
peevish if they are asked to help in the household 
tasks. 

The whole situation is wrong. Every member of the 
family should have its share in the household tasks as 
soon as it is old enough to help clear or set the table or 
to empty the wastebasket. Soon the child can help 
with the dishwashing, make its own bed, help with the 
cleaning. Later cooking becomes a possibility. In the 
country life where so much of the work was out of doors 
and in winter in severe cold, and the boys by their form 
of clothing could work more easily and yet be duly pro- 
tected, the general division of outdoor work to the boys 
and indoor work to the girls was a natural one. But 



THE INCOME BESIDES MONEY 129 

when the conditions of living sweep away the outdoor 
tasks, the bojs should not be deprived of their privilege 
in sharing the family work. Bedmaking and dishwash- 
ing are not for any fundamental reason "girls' work;" 
where many are gathered under one roof, as in hotel or 
institution, that work is quite as frequently done by men 
as by women. 

The child's strength and ability must be taken into 
consideration, but in the household what he or she 
likes or wants to do should not rule the division of labor. 
Every child should want to do his share. It is indeed 
a desire that shows early in most children. Sometimes 
it is discouraged by the busy mother who cannot be 
bothered by such untrained assistants and does not re- 
member that by making matters a little easier for her- 
self now she is not only making them harder in the 
future, when the trained child would be a real help, but 
is depriving the child of a very important part of its 
education. 

Only too many times where a paid household employee 
is employed to do the "housework" the family consider 
it beneath their dignity to do anything that falls in her 
province. Why answer the door when the bell rings ? 
Mary is there to do that. To be sure, it may interrupt 
Mary at a time when the interruption means a loss to 
the family — a loss of time, of material or of temper and 
so of peace in the household atmosphere. And the child 



130 GETTING YOUE MONEY^S WORTH 

who is idling or playing would lose little by running to 
the door and would gain something in social or business 
experience. Why help clear the table ? That is Mary's 
job. It would shorten her hours of labor, to be sure — 
and if the modern industrial basis is adopted, it could 
free some of her time for more skilled work. But the 
child would be doing servant's work, which is unthink- 
able. Why have each child make his or her own bed 
and care for the bedroom? But to go on is needless. 
There are thousands of families where the cooperation 
is effective under any circumstances, because the princi- 
ple of right family living is established in the minds of 
the heads of the family. But there are tens of thou- 
sands where thoughtlessly the principles are disre- 
garded, and it is these families that are failing to get 
their due measure of contentment from life. 

It is not easy for any one to accept deliberately a de- 
crease in money income. But if Eather has to work so 
hard that he looks on his home only as a place where 
doing nothing will help him recover from exhaustion, 
is it not the part of wisdom as well as of affection to 
consider whether he could find some less exhausting task, 
where his being able to share the family life would more 
than compensate for the simpler living made necessary ? 

Social ambition is probably Mother's chief tempta- 
tion to over-spending of her non-money assets, as well 
as to over-spending in dollars and cents. In former 



THE INCOME BESIDES MONEY 131 

days many a woman wore herself out keeping up a 
reputation as a "good housekeeper." She scrubbed and 
washed and sewed and crocheted and embroidered and 
cooked and polished until her tired nerves made her 
irritable and utterly unable to deal judiciously with the 
problems of discipline and education that were of funda- 
mental importance to her children. Nowadays the 
stress has changed a little. Less time to scrubbing and 
polishing, more to the making of clothing that looks 
like that of a Fifth Avenue shop — or as near it as one 
can get — the elaborate decoration of the house, the com- 
plications of fancy cookery for the entertainment of 
one's social group. But the result is the same. When 
Mother has not time to hear all about Janet's quarrel 
with Edith; or Tommy's fight over the marbles when 
Jack and Ted tried to cheat him, or to listen to David's 
tearful and confused tale of how the teacher didn't 
understand about his 'rithmetic — if she has not time to 
listen and to reason patiently, to explain and to bring 
out the ethics of these situations, then the family life 
is badly planned. 

Money buys a good deal, and we all need it much and 
want it more. But money cannot buy the spiritual or 
the mental — ^the things most worth while in life. We 
all know it, we all repeat it glibly, but we are all at 
times led to forget it in our practice. The principle of 
the budget — the plan, the facing definitely at a given 



133 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

time what one can do and what one Avants to do — 
is as valuable regarding the income that cannot be ex- 
pressed in dollars and cents as it is in that income re- 
corded on the Budget card. 



CONSEEVING AS AN" ASSET 

The careful use of the things that money can buy 
can hardly be classed under labor income, though some- 
times it means an expenditure of labor. In discussing 
the Clothing budget the question of the care of clothing 
has been considered, and the fact pointed out that 
proper care makes the money invested in Clothing 
stretch much farther than where careless treatment de- 
stroys or deteriorates the wardrobe. What has been 
said on that subject is true in principle everywhere. 
Little repairs made as soon as they occur make big 
repairs unnecessary. A household where there is no 
waste whatever and no careless use is so rare that few 
have ever seen one, yet curiously many of those who 
seem to onlookers most wasteful pride themselves on the 
fact that they never waste anything ! 

The first waste, chronologically, is in buying too 
much. If the house or apartment is too large — a con- 
dition more common twenty years ago than now — 
money is wasted in the maintenance, care and repair of 
unneeded space. If the wardrobe is unnecessarily full, 

133 



134 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

there is the double waste of discarding while still good 
what has gone hopelessly out of style and of the de- 
terioration of articles lying unused in drawers or hang- 
ing in closets. Rubber overshoes and the rubber on 
sport shoes deteriorate until the shoes are useless, if they 
are left standing for several years, even if they are 
never worn. The silk of even an expensive umbrella 
may crack along the seams when it is left carefully 
guarded in the corner of the closet, as too good for ordi- 
nary use, and many a sad surprise has lain in wait for 
the young woman who carefully reserved a pair of silk 
stockings for several years, brought them out for a 
great occasion, and had them go to pieces when she tried 
to put them on. Pure well-woven silk does not deteri- 
orate, as those who still have their great-grandmother's 
heavy silk gowns can testify, but few silks to-day are 
safe to test in this way, and the amateur finds it hard 
to make sure of quality, especially when the silk is 
bought already made up. Good cotton and linen will 
not lose their strength of thread, but if they lie long 
they will grow yellow, and labor has to be used to 
whiten them again. Wool has its special danger from 
moths. The annual money loss in this country from 
destruction by moths has never been and can never be 
calculated, but every year in thousands of households 
such loss occurs. This is not always due to careless- 
ness, but often to lack of knowledge. The garment 



CONSEEYIIS^G AS AN ASSET 135 

properly cleaued before it is put away ana properly 
protected is safe from moths and other insects. It 
takes care and thought to accomplish this, but the money 
saved is income to the family. Where it is difficult 
to clean and store properly at home a heavy article like 
a fur coat or an ulster, it is the part of wisdom to 
pay for having it stored by experts. Such payment is 
a form of insurance. 

The household equipment requires the same care. 
If the furniture is kept well-cleaned, and small repairs 
are made as soon as their need is seen, the life of the 
furniture is greatly prolonged. Polished wood sur- 
faces do not need the expensive process of refinishing 
often if they are kept in condition by careful use and 
the cleaning and polishing that is done at home. Up- 
holstered chairs and sofas can be cleaned at home if 
the dust is not allowed to accumulate too long. The 
handy-box that is part of the equipment of any careful 
family has a few gimp tacks, and when the gimp on 
the chair tears loose for an inch or two, it is at once 
tacked back into place, the needle mending any tears 
in the gimp. If the loose gimp is left, very soon there 
will be a longer strip torn, and the gimp may be beyond 
mending. Then not only must one spend money for 
new gimp, but time and energy in finding gimp to 
match, or suitable new gimp for the whole chair. If 
a rug is torn, or begins to wear, skilful darning may 



136 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

make it as good as new wlien continued wear without 
mending means soon discarding the rug. Repairs can- 
not always be made at home, of course. In the case of 
an Oriental rug, for example, a worn spot needs the 
expert. But if the rug is repaired as soon as the worn 
spot appears, or as soon as the edge begins to ravel, it 
can be made as strong as new. The skill of a good 
Oriental rug mender is something to envy. A beauti- 
ful piece of china or glass may when broken warrant 
riveting, and this cannot be done at home. To be sure, 
in America one rarely sees a riveted piece in use, a 
common enough sight on European tables. Their point 
of view is that the utility of the piece is in no way in- 
jured and its beauty, although impaired, not destroyed. 
Our point of view only too often is that if the piece 
cannot be mended so that it will look like new, it is 
good only for the ash heap or can. 

The United States Department of Agriculture 
through its Bureau of Home Economics publishes much 
valuable information about the best methods of care and 
repair of equipment and clothing. Their small pam- 
phlets are sold at a nominal cost. They give the result 
of experiments conducted in a way practical for the 
household, and a postal card to the U. S. Superintendent 
of Documents, Washington, D. C, will bring a price 
list of them. 

Kitchen utensils offer a great temptation to most 



CONSERVING AS AN ASSET 137 

housekeepers. It is so pleasant to have attractive ones, 
fresh and shining, and as many as one wants. Yet very 
often tin utensils are used so little, or dried so care- 
lessly, that they rust and become useless before they 
have begun to justify their purchase. Steel or iron is 
either eaten into by rust or requires a high labor cost 
to keep it clean. There are some utensils well worth 
having that can be used for a single purpose and that 
not a daily one — ^the bread mixer, for example, or the 
food chopper. But in selecting others it is well to 
consider their possibilities of varied use. A glass bread 
pan can be used for a cake, any scalloped dish or any 
baked pudding just as well as for bread, whereas the 
tin bread pan can be used only for bread and cake. It 
is certainly economy of labor to have good tools in the 
kitchen, and enough of them, but it is not economy of 
money or labor income to have too many tools, so that 
those little used either lessen in value or use time and 
energy to keep them in condition. Most housewives 
would be surprised, and disagreeably, if they knew the 
total of the expenditure represented in their kitchen 
equipment, including what is hidden away in cupboard 
or store-room or cellar or attic. To inventory it and 
find this sum may be a waste of time, but the current 
account card of Care of House-Furnishings should be 
watched closely. And it is not at all a bad idea to 
overhaul the whole equipment once a year, setting aside 



138 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

that not really used to be given to less fortunate neigh- 
bors or sold to the junk man. 

Household linen is another of the temptations of 
the housekeeper. There is no pleasanter sight to her 
than piles of snowy sheets and pillowcases on her 
shelves, and piles of damask napkins and tablecloths, 
or of exquisite centerpieces and doilies, in her drawers. 
Yet the initial cost of these is often considerable. If 
she has in her linen closets and drawers $10 worth more 
than she needs (even in an emergency) of bed linen, 
and $15 worth more than she needs in table linen, that 
is not serious, but yet it is deducting from the family 
income at least 50 cents a year (4% interest on $25) 
and that 50 cents might give greater satisfaction in some 
other form. 

A special method of conservation of table linen is 
the use for part of the time of a less expensive kind 
than the family uses as a general thing. Linen damask 
napkins and tablecloths are expensive not only in first 
purchase, but in the cost of laundering, since their 
beauty is brought out only by long slow ironing. If 
the family has used them for all three meals, will they 
not be content to use them for dinner only, and at the 
other two meals to use doilies or runners instead of the 
tablecloth? Napkins of Japanese toweling (to be had 
in many good patterns in blue and white), of cotton 
crepe or of unbleached muslin, with the rolled hem 



CONSERVIN^G AS AN ASSET 139 

whipped in color and perhaps a decoration in cross- 
stitch, are very cheap compared to damask. The doilies 
or runners can be of similar material, or of other simple 
kinds. The expense of laundering them is slight com- 
pared to the damask, and the table can be most attrac- 
tive with doilies. The doily sets made of an oil- 
cloth stenciled in gay color are money-saving and 
labor-saving. If there is a summer outdoor dining 
porch they are particularly appropriate there, but in- 
doors they are by no means undesirable for breakfast 
and informal meals. The use of any of these may add 
temporarily to the amount of table equipment to be 
cared for, but will lengthen the life of the expensive 
damask enough to justify that. 

The specific instances given are only examples chosen 
as obvious among a multitude. There is many a detail 
of family living that is taken for granted which, if 
examined by this family or that family, would fail to 
prove its share against other claims on the money or 
the time it costs. If the family is sure the cost is justi- 
fied, well and good. Undoubtedly there are families 
to whom the use of good damask at every meal is worth 
more than a few new records for the Victrola or a little 
more money to give to the Hospital fund or — whatever 
the choice may be. But there are comparatively few 
families with large enough incomes to do all these things 
and yet not leave the others undone. 



140 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

So far the argument has been on the selfish basis of 
getting what the family "wants most in return for its 
expenditure, but there is another consideration that 
should not be ignored. Everything that is grown and 
gathered or made has cost human labor, some part of 
a human life. That the labor should be adequately 
paid in money that can be translated into good living 
conditions should be our concern just so far as we in- 
dividually can affect it anywhere. But even though 
the laborer received his just share of the money return, 
that does not justify destroying the product of his 
hands, his work, his living, by careless or destructive 
ways. There are still people who tell you it is "good 
for trade" that those who have money should spend 
wastefully, but no modern economist would for a mo- 
ment accept that doctrine. There is enough really use- 
ful work to be done to occupy all the workers in the 
world for a reasonable number of working hours, and 
to pay them a wage enabling them to live in comfort. 
If our system of distribution is as yet so defective that 
some of the workers can find no work, others are badly 
overworked, some useful things are not produced in 
sufficient amounts, and useless and wasteful production 
still goes on, then we must learn how to reorganize our 
system. To waste any part of the labor already ex- 
pended may help an individual or two somewhere, but 



CONSEEVING AS AN ASSET 141 

harms society as a whole, and so in the end each member 
of it. 

To many brought up to the more lavish spending 
of to-day the horror of waste that our grandfathers and 
grandmothers felt, and which still lives in some of their 
descendants, seems a laughable petty economy, an evi- 
dence that they did not know how to get all the fun out 
of life. But really back of that horror of waste lay 
the consciousness of what the thing had cost, not only 
in money but also in human toil. When they cared for 
a coat or a gown, darned the tears, made it last, back 
of their care lay the memory of how much time and 
labor it had taken to care for the sheep, shear them, 
clean and card the wool, spin the thread, dye it and 
weave the cloth. They had seen all this as part of 
their home life. Grandson or granddaughter has not 
these processes as part of the common memory of child- 
hood, and thinks of the cost of the cloth as the money 
paid over the counter. But the cloth still cost the toil 
of the shepherd, the carter, the cleaner and the carder, 
fhe dyer and the weaver, even though machines helped 
most of them, and in addition it has cost its share of the 
overhead of the factory, of the work of the railroad 
employees, of the truck driver, of the pay of the whole- 
saler, the jobber and the retailer. It needs more imagi- 
nation than it did once to visualize all this and to 



142 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

realize it as a factor in one's life, but imagination is a 
gift the fairies give to every child, to be fostered and 
trained by those who see its importance. "Waste not, 
want not" is as practical a lesson to teach the next gen- 
eration as it was for the generation of our grandfathers 
or great-grandfathers. So is : "What you are using cost 
something in human labor — human life." 



XI 

ON INVENTOEIES 

To make a complete and accurate inventory of the 
property of a family is not an easy task and is one that 
consumes an amount of time that few will care to assign 
to it. To run the household on a real business basis not 
only should there be such an inventory, but at least 
yearly it should be revised, the proper depreciation 
charges deducted, and the money value of the total 
thus be brought up to date. But those who keep the 
real purpose of household accounting in mind will not 
think such a task a necessary one. There are some to 
whom it would be interesting and amusing enough to 
justify them in doing it, but they are not many. Those 
who have had occasion to inquire the cost of such an 
inventory, made by the individuals or firms who do 
such work for those who wish it as supplementary to 
their fire insurance, are probably amazed and perhaps 
disgusted at the price charged. But if they once try 
to do the task for themselves with equal care, even with 
their advantage of knowledge as to original cost, they 
will generally speedily decide that the price is reason- 
able. It is, in colloquial phrase, a pernickety job. 

143 



144 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

Yet it is quite evident that one is in far better posi- 
tion to collect insurance in case of fire if some list 
exists. The inventory for this purpose need not, how- 
ever, be complete. A list of the most expensive items 
of household furnishing and equipment, with a lump 
sum to represent the small items of each type, is gen- 
erally sufficient. If the Clothing inventory suggested in 
Chapter IV has been made once, it gives a good basis 
for judgment on Clothing. Any valuable articles of 
jewelry or such expensive items as furs should be listed 
separately. 

Such a list is most conveniently kept on loose leaves 
fastened into a cover, under such general heads as : 

China, Glass, Silver 
Clothing 
Floor Coverings 
Furniture 
Kitchen equipment 
Household linen 
Pictures and Ornaments 
Miscellaneous 

For here, at last, one may safely indulge in a "Mis- 
cellaneous" heading, to save the wear and tear on the 
mind of trying to decide whether a Victrola is Fur- 
niture or whether an umbrella stand is an Ornament. 

The only practical way to make the inventory is for 
two people to work at it, one calling oif the items and 



ON IXVEXTOEIES 145 

the other writing them down on large sheets in pencil, 
to be copied later into the book. The division under 
Floor coverings, Furniture, Pictures and Ornaments, 
will naturally be by rooms, but the description should 
be definite enough so that if the piece of furniture is 
moved it will still be identified. "Six dining-room 
chairs" is accurate enough, but under Sitting-room to 
write "two side-chairs" is not. It should be "two mahog- 
any side-chairs, cane seat" or "two oak side-chairs, blue 
covering." As the inventory is taken, it is well to 
write down the cost when that comes to mind, and the 
date or approximate date of the entrance of that item 
into the family life. All this information is interest- 
ing and sometimes it proves valuable. 

When the inventory is complete for the important 
items of each room, the general value of minor items 
should be noted, under the proper heading. "Miscel- 
laneous" must of course always be itemized. 

The next step is to fill in on the rough sheets the 
column of original cost of each article. This must often 
be a matter of judgment, sometimes one of guess, but 
a value must be set on each piece. It is of course pos- 
sible to set down the present value rather than the 
original cost, but this is more difiicult and time-con- 
suming. Shall the value in that case be the original 
cost plus a general depreciation charge, which in theory 
at least reduces the value to zero when the article has 



146 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

degenerated to tlie discarding point, or shall it be the 
sale value ? In the latter case the basis is difficult to 
choose, since at a forced sale, say to the secondhand man, 
the sale value is much less than that of a sale made under 
no compulsion to some housekeeper who v^ants or needs 
the article. It seems a useless waste of time to exer- 
cise individual judgment on such problems. Calculat- 
ing the value of each piece as original cost minus de- 
preciation can be done with a greater degree of ac- 
curacy, but is time consuming. The total of original 
costs can be turned into an estimate of present value by 
deducting from it a general depreciation charge of say 
25%, where there is considerable furniture whose value 
increases rather than decreases with age, or 50% where 
none of the furniture is of this type. Such general 
judgments are just as likely to approach that of the 
expert as are those more carefully calculated. 

In inventorying books it is not necessary to do so 
individually. They can be grouped as "76 novels, 13 
volumes of poetry, 22 volumes of biography" and the 
like, with an average value assigned, and only books 
of high cost of value listed separately. 

The store-room and the attic are usually "lumped" 
in such an inventory, but the occasion of taking it might 
well be the one to look through the heterogeneous collec- 
tions of such places and to discard some of the useless 
or worthless things. Sometimes there are things of 



ON INVENTORIES 147 

value that should be listed. Trunks, for example, may 
make a goodly sum total. 

In some states the insurer, to receive full value in 
case of loss, is required to take out insurance of at 
least 80% of the value of the things insured. The fire 
insurance agent explains all such details, but many 
insurers listen so carelessly that they are surprised dis- 
agreeably V7hen the occasion comes to collect after dam- 
age by fire. 

The inventory once made needs a yearly revision. 
This can usually be made well enough by one person, 
who takes the inventory book about and annotates any 
changes in pencil, noting additions on a separate sheet. 
If these changes are made in green ink for one year, 
red ink for another, starred for another, the sheets need 
be rewritten only at long intervals. To keep such an 
inventory in duplicate uses more time, but of course one 
copy must be left in a secure place — preferably a safe 
or a safety deposit box — outside the house. If the 
house should burn or be damaged by fire and the list 
destroyed, the purpose of the list is defeated. 



XII 

THE INDIVIDUAL BUDGET 

The principles of budget-making do not change, 
whether the budget is for a family or an individual, yet 
the balance of items is frequently quite different, and 
the individual deserves a few words. The young man 
or the young woman who for the moment is free of 
financial responsibility for any other person has never- 
theless the probable prospect of family responsibility in 
the future, and needs preparation for this on the money 
side as well as in other ways. It is easy and tempting 
to spend all the money available on having a "grand 
good time" while one is young and has the physical 
vigor and mental zest to enable one to enjoy it to the 
full. Certainly young manhood, young womanhood, is 
the time to enjoy certain kinds of pleasure, to be care- 
free and full of the joy of living. 

But to think about it a bit and decide deliberately 
how much one is willing to pay for all this need cause 
no clouding over of the spirit of joy. To exercise judg- 
ment as to what one really wants of life as a whole is 
not a saddening exercise. The pleasure of the moment 
tastes sweet, but there is very enjoyable savor in the 

148 



THE INDIVIDUAL BUDGET 149 

pleasure of planning and directing one's own choices. 

If the young man or young woman grows to middle 
age without assuming family responsibilities, the need 
to provide for the later period of life looms large. The 
self-supporting must look out for their own future. 
They have an obligation to themselves in their years of 
lessened or vanished earning power, and the conscious- 
ness of this grows with the passing years. The earlier 
some provision is made for this, the less has to be set 
aside each year, but those who have postponed such 
provision until middle life should not be discouraged 
from the effort to repair the negligence now. In Chap- 
ter XV there is a discussion of the types of saving best 
for different types of future need. 

One may, of course, be free of full family obligation 
and still have responsibilities — to parents who need 
financial aid, to the education of younger brother or 
sister, to nieces and nephews, to decrepit or helpless 
relatives in any degree. Usually these obligations can 
be met by definite money payments, made with regu- 
larity in the interests of both receiver and giver. This 
is the easiest way to meet such obligations, hard as it 
may sometimes be to see the money go month after 
month, year after year, leaving the earner with many 
desires ungratified. Where the obligation includes liv- 
ing with the person or persons involved, the problem 
becomes that of a family, although not necessarily one 



150 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

that has all the needs described for the average or nor- 
mal family group. 

Those individuals who have none of these family or 
friendly obligations lose much in losing their feeling 
of being an essential part of a cooperative group. Some- 
times they make up for this in part by assuming a more 
general obligation in some form of community work, 
such as an orphanage, a hospital, a neighborhood house 
or some form of church work. The middle aged or 
elderly man or woman who lives and works and spends 
for self alone is hardly a happy person. 

Except for the few individuals who maintain homes, 
in the individual budget Rent and Eood do not usually 
bulk so large as they do in the family budget. Cloth- 
ing, on the other hand, usually calls for a larger pro- 
portion, since the household cleaning, repair or mak- 
ing of clothing is not often possible. Recreation and 
Entertainment ordinarily take more, since less costly 
pleasures of amusement and hospitality in the home 
must be replaced by more paid amusements and enter- 
tainments at costlier meals. Even the pleasure of 
reading increases in cost, since the book or magazine 
is bought for one, and the cost cannot be divided into 
the family cost. Fuel and Light vanish as items if one 
does not maintain home or apartment, and Service les- 
sens or disappears. But these are all minor matters, 
easy for the individual to decide. 



THE INDIVIDUAL BUDGET 151 

Accounts are simpler to keep, since both headings and 
items are surer. They are equally necessary, since the 
detached individual is tempted even more than the 
member of a family to the scattering about of many 
dollars in nickels, dimes and quarters. 

The man or v^oman vs^ho lives apart from a family 
that on some basis is a real family to him or her is 
often socially-minded and -does not grow^ selfish even 
when there is no concrete call to consider others. But, 
the conditions are not favorable, and to avoid deteriorar 
tion one must seek to find antidotes to the subtle poisons 
of considering one's own comfort and ease alone, whether 
the comfort be physical, the ease mental, or either be 
spiritual. The lone man or woman is handicapped in 
the race to the finest development of personality. The 
budget is a help in recognizing and overcoming this 
handicap. 



XIII 

TRAINING THE CHILDEEN 

Tlius far in this book the question of the children's 
share in the making and carrying out of the budget 
has been dealt with, in one aspect or another, more 
than once. But it is not enough training for these ap- 
prentices to teach them judgment through a part 
in making the family choices, to train them in the earn- 
ing of a labor income, or to give them the chance to 
pay with some of their time and energy for something 
they want. All these things are fundamental, but they 
need to be supplemented by the definite training of 
making a budget and keeping accounts within the child's 
scope and as a responsibility. This is possible only 
if the child has a fixed money income, paid in sums 
and at intervals known in advance. The "allowance," 
this is called. If the word means the amount of the 
family income that is allowed the individual for cer- 
tain purposes of his own, and over which he has full 
right, the term is a good one. If there is a con- 
notation of favor in the term, so that the child or the 
family feels that his "allowance" is an indulgence, 
the term is unfortunate. 

152 



TEAimNG THE CHILDEEN 153 

It is not enougii to say that for the training of the 
child in spending, as an educational measure, he should 
have a definite sum for whose spending- he alone is re- 
sponsible. As a member of the family he has a right to 
that responsibility, and he does not share the family life 
fully unless he has it. And this sum is not payment for 
anything he does in the household routine. To pay 
Jack 10 cents a week for keeping the walks clean, or 
Mary 10 cents a week for clearing the table, introduces 
as false an idea into the family life as when Mother is 
paid for her services. In a cooperative group each re- 
ceives, not what he earns, but the share to which he is 
entitled by his needs. Children are not "given" their 
main expenses by Father and Mother only to "earn" 
an allowance. The family income, in time and in 
labor, belongs to the family as a whole and is divided by 
them to the best advantage of the group as a whole and 
of each individual in it. It cannot be said too strongly 
that teaching children the value or the method of ob- 
taining money by paying them for any part of their 
share in the family life is bad education and bad 
ethics. 

Granted, however, that the allowance is made as 
part of each child's share in the living, when and under 
"what conditions should it be given ? To answer the 
first half of the question, each child should certainly 
have an allowance as soon as he can do the simple figur^ 



151 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

ing necessary to make a plan and keep accounts. With 
many children it is advisable to begin before this, but 
only when the child understands that the money is 
not a casual indulgence, but a definite income. The age 
at which the child should have an allowance must de- 
pend on the individual child, and that child's stage 
of development must be considered at every point. 
There is danger that enthusiasm for training the child 
by giving him responsibility may lead to asking him 
to take too much, and to putting an unfair strain on his 
undeveloped judgment. The problem is that of right 
adjustment to his powers, as is every educational prob- 
lem in some degree. 

The allowance should be given the child weekly, and 
on a regular day. Sunday afternoon or evening is 
in most families a good time for the distribution, and 
for the questions that may come up. And the child 
old enough to keep accounts should be required to do 
so, and to balance them. From time to time Mother 
or Father should call for the account, and they should 
expect it to be ready at any time. Accounts hastily 
written up for inspection are a temptation to careless- 
ness and even deceit. The inspection should be for 
the method of keeping accounts, not for the way the 
money was used. If money is used unwisely, as the 
parents see it, any exhortation regarding this must de- 
pend on the character and general training of the child. 



TEAINING THE CHILDREN 155 

Such exhortation should be avoided unless it is very- 
important. It is of little disciplinary value to the 
child to give him responsibility and then to interfere in 
his exercise of it. And parents will do well to remember 
how easy it is to criticize the judgment of others in 
the use of money, how hard it is to be confident of 
one's own. But the inspection of method cannot be 
omitted, as unless with the exceptional child slipshod 
ways will be the result if the child is left to his own 
devices. 

The third point in importance, after those of the 
regular fixed income and the inspected account, is defi- 
niteness regarding what the money is to cover. It 
should never be for amusement — candy, movies, what- 
not — alone. For those who have church connections, the 
Sunday School penny is a frequent part of the plan, 
and a good one, but should be led up to until it is the 
choice of the child, not the order of the elder. "You 
are old enough now to have a little income of your 
own, so every week you are to have your share. Ten 
cents a week, that is going to be more than $5 in the 
year. Every Sunday afternoon I am going to give you 
the ten cents, and I will show you about how to keep 
track of it. But first you want to plan a little, as we 
all do about our money, don't you ? Do you want to 
spend all the ten cents on yourself ?" and so on. That 
sounds a little like Hollo, but a real give-and-take con- 



156 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

versation of this kind is hard to reproduce, since mothers 
and fathers and children are all different. But surely 
the child should be expected to make a plan and should 
be led, not forced, to plan to give some for the general 
good and some in presents to those he loves. The im- 
pulse toward both is so strong in most children that 
the process is a simple one. The occasional child who 
does not want to give anything to anybody needs train-- 
ing as early as possible. It might even be advisable in 
an extreme case to make his allowance smaller than 
that of his brother or sister, on the ground that his 
needs are fewer, since he has not the desire to share 
with others that they must meet. 

As rapidly as possible the income should be increased 
and the responsibilities along with it. The increase 
should not be on the ground of age, except as an added 
year makes the child more able to exercise judgment 
and meet responsibility. It should be quite clear to 
Dorothy, who has 1 5 cents a week at ten, that the reason 
Betty has 25 cents at twelve is not because she is two 
years older, but because she has good enough judgment 
to buy all her own hair ribbons, which come out of 
the seemingly princely weekly allowance. 

The allowance and the responsibility should be in- 
creased as fast as is advisable with each child until in 
late adolescence the money is enough to cover all the 
clothing expenditure and minor personal expenses like 



TEAmiKG THE CHILDEEN 157 

stamps and stationery, as well a.s gifts. One girl of 
twelve may be able to handle this whole allowance, 
while another of seventeen may be trusted with it only 
under rather strict conditions. Of course Mother or 
Father makes it a condition that the clothing shall 
protect health, and equally of course shops with the 
young buyer to give him or her the benefit of greater 
experience in judging materials and values. Equally of 
course Father and Mother are constantly tempted to 
influence decision when the young shopper makes mis- 
takes in judgment, and often they may be justified, but 
they should count ten before they speak and be sure 
that they are not interfering with the right course of 
the child's education. 'No one can learn good judgment 
without the experience of making mistakes and suf- 
fering by them. This generation has forgotten dear 
old Miss Edgeworth and her Moral Tales, but they 
were wonderfully good tales at that. Rosamond and 
the Purple Jar is a story of wise parents, who let their 
little girl waste her money by buying the glass jar 
of dull looking paste that had shone so alluringly pur- 
ple in the chemist's window, with the strong light be- 
hind it. They explained to her that she might have it 
instead of the new boots she needed, but that she could 
not have both, and tried to make her see the conse- 
quences of her decision. But when she made the foolish 
one they did not save her from the humiliation of wear- 



158 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

ing boots with holes, or allow her to injure her health 
by going out in bad weather witli such poor protection. 

Their wisdom must be the rule for the parents of to- 
day if the children are not to be cheated. Many a so- 
called indulgent father or mother grants an "allowance" 
to son or daughter either without making clear what 
must be bought out of it or with the secret intention of 
buying themselves for the child what the allowance 
does not cover. Where then is the education as to the 
limit of expenditure? If teasing Father or weeping 
for Mother or pouting and refusing an invitation can 
get a new dress when daughter has spent all her al- 
lowance, why should she plan carefully how she is to 
spend that all too limited sum? If complaining be- 
cause all the other boys have new fishing rods, or being 
glum and disagreeable with Mother because he hasn't 
had a new necktie this season, or confiding to Father 
that women don't understand a boy, or know what he 
wants — if all these bring the needed rod or necktie or 
additional money for fun, why need son think twice 
before he spends ? All this does not mean that Christ- 
mas or birthday may not bring a gift of some needed 
luxury, but it is a gift instead of some other gift, not 
a surreptitious addition to the allowance, and even 
such gifts should be made Avith care. 

Sometimes there is a devoted uncle or aunt or grand- 
mother or friend who is entirely unsympathetic with 



TRAINING THE CHILDREN 159 

this training, who holds that joung people should be 
free of responsibility and should have what they want 
so far as they can secure it, and who adds to the 
allowance by gifts of money or clothing. There is no 
relief in such a case but to talk the whole matter over 
with the recipient and decide together on the right 
way to deal with this addition. 

When children are sent away to school, the allow- 
ance is of as great if not greater importance than it 
is at home. It is literally demoralizing for the school- 
boy or schoolgirl thrown with many others who are 
spending money in many ways to be uncertain as to the 
amount he or she can have to spend during the year. 
To ask for money, to coax, to wheedle — it is all unfair. 
Many schools limit the spending money of all students 
to one sum, but it is hardly possible to do that for an 
allowance that covers clothing. And many a head of 
such a school has been rebuffed decidedly when he or 
she has asked that a definite allowance be made to 
cover all expenses. "My son — my daughter — is too 
young to handle so large a sum of money. I am aston- 
ished that you suggest it." Yet not too young to spend 
it, or to try to get more from the bottomless well — in 
their conception of it if not in cash — of Father's wealth. 

There is a possible compromise on the clothing side 
where the parents are unwilling to give over the money 
to the child. The latter can be told the amount that is 



160 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

available for the year, keep strict account of all that is 
spent and make the choices, while Father or Mother 
pays the bills. Or if not all the choices, some of them. 
The parent reluctant to begin this is often converted 
to greater generosity in allowing choice by the serious- 
ness with which the child takes the matter and the 
good judgment he or she sho'ws in fitting the thing 
bought to needs or desires. 

It is not at all unreasonable to require approA'al of 
the child's budget by father or mother or both before 
the budget can be put into effect, and to require ex- 
planation when the yearly expenditure shows a serious 
deviation from the budget. This can be done without 
any real interference, and is often a great help to the 
novice, since experience has taught the parents what he 
or she has yet to learn. 

Every child who has a large enough allowance to war- 
rant it, as will be the case when the clothing account 
is of several hundred dollars, should have a checking 
bank account, into which the allowance is paid and on 
which he or she draws. It is only just that if the bank 
requires a minimum deposit of $100 or $200, this 
amount should be supplied from the family income (and 
counted each year in the cash on hand) ; otherwise the 
child could not use the allowance to the full, which 
should be possible. 

As the children grow to young manhood and woman- 



TRAILING THE CHILDEEN 161 

hood and begin full-time "work as wage or salary earn- 
ers while still living in their own home, the allowance 
lessens or ceases. The amount earned at first is usually 
not enough to enable the young worker to pay into the 
common treasury what from a commercial point of 
view is his share of the cost of the household. But 
he or she contributes according to his ability. To con- 
tinue the allowance and accept part of the earned in- 
come of the young worker is perhaps absurd from a 
business point of view, but from that of the family 
as a cooperative group is a sensible one. When the 
young man or woman is at last in a financial position 
to bear a full share in the family expenditure, the 
thrill of satisfaction is not confined to any one member 
of the family. 

Back of any such method of dealing with the prob- 
lem as is suggested here lies the expectation that the 
child when grown to manhood or womanhood will be 
self-supporting. In many families the plan of father 
and mother is to "leave the children well provided 
for," which means to leave them money enough to pro- 
duce an income on which they can live. Most parents, 
however, as a matter of necessity bring their children 
up to earn their own living. And thousands who might 
make money provision for their children for the sake 
of the children themselves and for the sake of society 
at large bring them up to become self-supporting just as 



162 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WOETH 

definitely as if a small family income made this neces- 
sary. This has always been true in America as regards 
the boys, and is increasingly becoming true for the 
girls also. There are still, however, thousands of girls 
who are handicapped by the social attitude that makes 
the parents — and often the girls themselves — fear that 
they will destroy something fine in the girl if they 
make her useful enough in any occupation (other thail 
homemaking) so that she can be worth a money wage 
large enough to support her. Training for self-support 
is unquestionably a heritage of greater value than any 
amount of money. It not only gives something that 
cannot be taken away or lost without the fault of the 
owner, as money may be, but in giving this makes the 
member of the younger generation a full sharer in his 
social heritage. 



XIV 

USING BANKS 

There are three kinds of banking institutions com- 
monly used. In one kind all the money deposited is 
available at any moment through a check or checks 
drawn against the account. In large cities such banks 
now very generally require a standing deposit of $100 
or $200, and if this is drawn on they charge for carry- 
ing the account, usually $1 a month. The banks in 
smaller places rarely make this requirement. But in 
either, any or all of the money may be drawn at any 
time without warning. 

The second type is the Trust Company, which receives 
money and holds it at the call of the depositor (on check) 
like the first type of bank, but pays a low monthly in- 
terest (not often more than 2%) on the deposit if this 
reaches some minimum, which may be as low as $100. 
In other words, if a man's balance in that bank has 
not fallen below $400 during a given month, at the end 
of that month (at 2%) .67 interest will be added to 
the account. The money advantage of such an arrange- 
ment in many cases is more evident when one remem- 
bers that the $200 minimum of the large bank means a 

163 



164 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

loss of $8 a year interest that a savings bank deposit of 
that amount would bring. 

The savings bank is the third type, for deposits that 
are not subject to withdrawal by check. The depositor 
has no checks and can get money from his account only 
by presenting at the bank the slip receipt that it re- 
quires. Savings banks may by law require thirty days 
notice of withdrawal of deposits, but this right is rarely 
exercised. The bank pays interest — from 3% to 4%, 
according to the bank — on all money that has been in 
the bank six months at the time of the payment of semi- 
annual interest. 

For those whose income is very irregular, the sav- 
ings bank is almost indispensable. Workers in seasonal 
trades, where there is employment for some weeks, no 
work for a similar period, and a repetition of this pro- 
cess through the year, can deposit regularly weekly 
when the pay is coming in, and withdraw a regular 
amount weekly when there is no pay. In this way the 
small account — or any part of it carried for the half- 
year period of the bank — is drawing interest, and when 
the need is desperate, the account can be entirely closed, 
and all the money used, without any loss to the depositor. 
This method of providing for periods of unemployment 
is unquestionably the safest, and careful calculation will 
add to the account regularly during periods of earn- 
ing enough to keep the worker or the family in the 



USING BANKS 165 

non-earning periods. If such provision is not made, 
it is hard to resist the temptation to have a little fling 
while the money is coming in and be left v^ith too little 
to pay for food and rent v^hen the wages stop. Many 
families depending on commissions irregularly paid, 
or even on stories or pictures sold at intervals, would 
do well to adopt this method. 

There are great advantages in having a checking ac- 
count, on any income large enough to allow it. This 
should he carried in addition to the savings bank ac- 
count when the income, even if irregular, is large 
enough to warrant it. How large that is must depend 
on whether the bank requires the $200 or $300 mini- 
mum, whether marketing of all kinds is done under 
conditions that make checks useful or desirable, and 
other personal conditions. The check returned to the 
bank and then to the depositor is the best of receipts, 
and it is the growing habit of large retail business 
houses to return no other receipt unless especially re- 
quested. This is a considerable saving in postage, in 
envelopes and in labor for such a concern as a large 
department store, and such a saving means a lessened 
overhead cost, and is eventually an advantage to the 
customer. Checks are easy to handle and to file, being 
of uniform size, and occupy little room. Wherever 
money must be sent by mail, they provide a safe and 
easy way of sending. The security and the economy 



166 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WOETH 

of time and labor that a checking account gives are 
usually well worth the cost of carrying one. But 
although this cost does not appear on the expense card 
it should not he forgotten. If the bank requires a mini- 
mum of $200 the cost of carrying the account may be 
calculated as 4% on $200, (which one could get from 
a savings bank and still have the cash easily available) ; 
that is, $8 a year. On the other hand, there is a credit 
advantage in carrying the checking account, as payment 
by check is preferred by any firm carrying weekly or 
monthly charge accounts, and the possession of a bank 
account gives a certain financial standing to the indi- 
vidual. Whether the cost is worth the advantages in a 
given case is a question to be decided by the family or 
individual. Yet there are few who having once estab- 
lished a checking bank account are willing to give it up. 
Savings Bank Account. The depositor receives a 
bank-book, in which all deposits and withdrawals are 
entered. To deposit money he fills out a regular slip 
provided by the bank and presents this at the proper win- 
dow of the bank, with his book. He need not go in per- 
son, but may send some one else with book and slip or 
send both by registered mail. The latter is often neces- 
sary when the bank is in another town. The bank offi- 
cial (teller) retains the slip and writes the deposit in 
the bank-book, returning this to the customer. To with- 
draw money a slip is also provided, and must be pre- 



USING BANKS 167 

sented with the book in the same way. Money can be 
withdrawn by mail, as it is deposited, the bank in that 
case sending the amount in a check or draft. 

Interest on savings bank accounts is credited semi- 
yearly, and entered in the depositor's bank-book when he 
leaves it for the purpose. January 1 and July 1 are the 
usual dates on which to credit this. This should be 
remembered in making out income tax returns, as the 
interest credited must be reported as income, and it 
is credited to the depositor on the bank ledgers as soon 
as it is payable. 

Checking Accounts. To open an account the pros- 
pective depositor calls at the bank, accompanied by 
some one known at the bank or by a letter of introduc- 
tion from another bank. If the latter is made as "in- 
troducing John M. Jones, whose signature is written 
below" and Mr. Jones writes his name at the bottom of 
the sheet before presenting the letter, the introduction 
is satisfactory identification. But the bank must be 
sure that the individual is what he represents himself 
to be, and to be offended by a request for proof of 
identity as if the matter were a personal one, is a mark 
of inexperience and misapplied sensitiveness. 

The depositor should come with money enough in 
cash or checks to open the account. He is asked to write 
his signature once or more on the bank's records, with 
which they can at any time compare the signature on a 



168 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

check, and the form of signature chosen — name in full 
or middle name or names by initial only — should be 
used on all checks. He is then supplied "with deposit 
slips and a check-book and in most cases with a bank- 
book, in which is written the date and amount of his 
deposit, and is given any information necessary as to the 
rules and procedure of this particular bank. 

The bank has several forms of check-book, with one, 
three, or more checks to the page, and often the smallest 
are furnished in a folding case, to make them more 
compact for pocket or hand-bag. Usually a woman and 
frequently a man thinks the one-check-to-a-page variety 
the best to choose, since it is less bulky, but the three- 
check-to-a-page is the most practical for ordinary family 
or individual use. The bookkeeping side is simpler, as 
the addition of the amounts of three checks and the de- 
duction of this total from the total deposit is a little 
shorter and a little less liable to error than the de- 
duction of each check total separately and the con- 
tinual carrying forward of the balance. The book is 
also easier to handle in checking up an account or look- 
ing back to verify a payment. Bulk is not of importance, 
as one does not ordinarily carry a check-book about, but 
keeps it on or in one's home desk, where accounts are 
also kept. If checks may be needed away from home 
or in traveling, it is easy to tear a few from the book 
(taking care that they are numbered) and when eacli 



USING BANKS 169 

is filled out, to make a note of number, date, amount and 
payee to be transferred later to tbe check-book stub. 
The check is an order on the bank, in this form for con- 
venience, but any written order to the bank will be ac- 
cepted. The bank has on its desks for customers 
"counter checks" for the convenience of those who wish 
to pay or draw money and have forgotten their own 
checks. The danger of using these or an order in the 
form of a letter is that one may forget to enter them. 
N^ote must be made at the time and when the check- 
book is obtainable, they must be entered in the margin 
in the proper chronological order and numbered — with 
a supplementary "a" (103a) if the numbering is already 
on the stubs. 

The checks are to be consecutively numbered. There 
are usually fewer mistakes if numbers are written ahead 
in fifties or hundreds or through the book, rather than 
one by one as the checks are written. The stubs are 
numbered to correspond with the checks. This number- 
ing is not essential to the banking transaction, but is a 
time-saver in checking the account, as will be seen later. 
It is also more business-like and enables one to refer to 
a check by number in a convenient way. In order to 
avoid long numbers, a new series must be started from 
time to time. An excellent rule is to start each year 
with fresh numbering. Check 24 is then 24 of 1920, or 
24 of 1922, easily identified and looked up. 



170 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WOETH 

In the column allowed for Deposits the sum on hand 
should be at the top of the column, and it is more con- 
venient to enter deposits made while the page is in use 
directly under the top figures. There is a column at 
the left for the date of the deposit. 

In writing a check accuracy and clearness are of first 
importance. The handwriting should be the most legi- 
ble the writer can attain. The date, amount in figures, 
name of payee and amount written out should all be 
so written that there is no mistake. If there is a house- 
hold typewriter, the monthly checks can be made out 
at one time on this, leaving only the signature to be 
written. The name of the payee should be full enough 
for certain identification; Mary L. Anderson is better 
than M. L. Anderson or Mary Anderson, even though 
the check is collectible under any of the three forms. 
Even Mrs. John Q. Anderson is collectible, but it is not 
a business way of making a check. Mrs., Miss or Mr. 
have no proper place on such a document. They are 
courtesy titles, for social use. A slight variation in 
spelling — Andersen for Anderson, Marie for Mary — 
may not prevent the payment, but such variations, if 
evidence of general slipshod ways, may some day lead 
to serious consequences. 

The amount should be so written that the check can- 
not be raised — that is, the amount made more by the 
addition of a word and figures. To do this, begin 



USING BANKS 171 

writing at tlie extreme left. This space cannot be prop- 
erly filled by a line drawn by the pen. The courts have 
held that in case such a check is altered there is "con- 
tributory negligence" on the part of the person who so 
wrote it. When the whole sum is easily written in full, 
that should be done, but the dollars written out and the 
fraction at the end are sufficient if connected by a line. 
Tor example : 



The Nassau National Bank of Brooklyn • «' 

1 Jbukk op ^^^ h C \^it^^^*-^^ ■' $ Jj ^ 

. ^i.*iju ^^SUa^ 



Dollars 



The Nassau National Bank of Brooklyn • 

New York City j^jiiOuiiMAlI^X^Z L. Wo. 21^3 




I TOTHB 

1 OROER OP 



*:5^ 



■fifO Dollars 



d^Lic/. ^.'M^ 



If the writing does not begin at the extreme left, but 
an inch in, the check can easily be changed and if the 
figures are written with the same lack of care, the check 



can be changed to 



173 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 



The Nassau National Bank of Brooklyn • '»>» 

KewYohk City l^MiMiMslJ^ 192 L Ko. 2AS 



-^^i*id^-.^^^'t^^^ 



To be sure, there is not much danger of such rais- 
ing in the checks of the ordinary individual, since the 
sums are not large enough to pay for the risk, the de- 
posits are not large enough to warrant a "worth while" 
raise and the other difficulties are too great, hut when 
one is conducting any kind of business transaction it 
should be done in the business way, for the establishing 
of good habits. To write a check badly does not ordi- 
narily mean that it will not be honored by the bank or 
that it will be altered by a forger, as any bank man will 
tell you. The results will be a nuisance to the bank, 
and to the writer another step on the path of careless- 
ness. 

At the time the check is written the stub must also be 
filled out, with date, payee and amount, and some brief 
indication of the commodity bought. "Groceries," 
"Coal," or for department store, gas, electric light or 
telephone, "Bill of June 1" or "Bill of May 31." Where 
accounts are kept, detail on check stubs is unnecessary. 



USING BANKS 173 

When all the checks on a page are nsed, add Deposits 
column and column Amount of Check, subtract the lat- 
ter from the former and transfer to the next page the 
balance. It is a convenience to use a large clip at the 
top to hold together a number of pages of the check- 
book, the page in use being the last so held. In this 
way one can open at once to the current page. 

Some mark must be adopted to show that the ex- 
penditure represented has been entered in the accounts 
— a small V in the upper right hand corner of the 
space for entering check items on the stubs is easily 
seen. Where a check is drawn to Self or Cash, when the 
expenditure will be recorded as it occurs, the mark 
should be made on writing the check. In other cases if 
it is convenient to enter the expenditure at once on 
accounts, well and good, but there is no need for doing 
this until the weekly entry of all accounts. Then ex- 
amine the check-book and record the expenditure repre- 
sented by all checks not bearing the V. If the clip 
is used, it is well not to clip down any page until the 
account entries are made. In this way one does not 
need to look back continually to see whether the ac- 
count record is complete. When the check-book is all 
used, as a precaution run through to see that the little 
V is on every card. If it is not, look to see if the sum 
represented by the check has been entered on the ac- 
counts. 



174 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

At stated intervals the check-book must be checked 
up with the bank statement. It is increasingly the 
practice of banks to send by mail an account for each 
month, and this is advisable, as checking up frequently 
is easier both because the figuring is less and because 
errors are more easily traced. Banks are justly looked 
on as models of accuracy, but they are nevertheless 
staffed by fallible human beings and one of these oc- 
casionally charges a check or credits a deposit to the 
wrong person. To one mistake made by the bank there 
are unknown thousands made by depositors, who are 
not practised in banking. Either kind of mistake 
should be found and corrected as soon as possible. If 
the bank does not send a monthly statement, ask for 
one each month, or in the occasional case where the 
bank objects to this, at as frequent intervals as pos- 
sible. 

In sending the statement the bank returns all checks 
that have been charged to the account during the period. 
Arrange these in numbered order, and open your check- 
book to the page where the stub of the earliest number 
is found. Have at hand two slips of paper whose use 
will be described later. Compare rapidly checks and 
stubs, looking only at the number and amount of the 
check. As you match them, put a check mark on both 
stub and check. The mark is easier made large, and 
shows up quicker in the book if put over the amount 



USING BANKS 175 

rather than the square giving the items. "When there 
is a check missing from the numbered order, write the 
number, name of payee (in brief) and amount on one 
of the slips of paper before mentioned. Usually there 
will be a number of such entries, in which case the 
figures should be set down in a column, for easy add- 
ing. If you find a discrepancy between the figures on 
the stub and those on the check, note number and dis- 
crepancy on the second slip. Your attention will be 
called to any counter check that you have failed to 
enter by its return to you. In this checking any 
"raised" check should be discovered and promptly re- 
ported to the bank. 

When all the stubs are checked, add the figures for the 
checks not returned, and add this to the amount on de- 
posit. If a deposit was made in the last few days of the 
month, look at the bank statement to see if it reached 
the bank in time to be credited. If it did not, deduct 
it from your total. Make any correction of discrepancy, 
if you found any. (The amount on the check is of 
course the one actually paid.) If the bank has given 
you a slip showing exchange or "carrying charge" or 
interest deducted, deduct that. Opposite the last check 
you have written make these corrections, in Deposit 
column for additions, in Amount of check column for 
subtractions. Explain these — using back of stub if 
necessary. ISTow look at the balance on the bank state- 



176 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

ment and see if it is the same as your own. If it is 
not, there is a mistake somewhere, and the odds are 
very heavy that it is in your own account. If the hank 
does not give separate slips for each charge for exchange 
or carrying charge, as it should, it is well to look first 
on the bank statement of payments to find any such item. 
A bank does not send to a customer a statement con- 
taining any unexplained item. As most naistakes are 
in addition and subtraction, verify your own first. It 
is so rare for a bank to make a mistake there that it 
is hardly worth considering. Adding machines are used 
by most banks, and they do not make mistakes. This 
is a case where getting an exact balance is worth spend- 
ing all the time necessary. If you are inexperienced and 
cannot find your error, go to your bank and ask for help. 
The bank is glad to give you training, since in the end 
it will be as much to their advantage as to yours. 

There are, as any banker will tell you, thousands of 
depositors who never number their checks and never 
check up the bank statements. They are usually the 
same who "write checks carelessly and often those who 
overdraw. They never know how much money they 
actually have available, as the bank statement cannot 
show the amount for checks written but not yet col- 
lected. All bank checks go through central clearing 
houses, and very rapidly, but not everyone cashes a 



USING BANKS 177 

check quickly. When a check has been written hut not 
cashed, the writer of it has still the money, and can 
easily make the addition in checking the hank state- 
ment. But it is rather a nuisance to carry from month 
to month the data regarding an uncashed check, and 
not he able to keep stubs checked up to date, so that it 
is a matter of courtesy to cash promptly any check 
received. When the check is from some person or firm 
not well known, it is also safe to cash the check before 
any possible transfer of account or failure makes it 
worthless. 

When the account is straight, put the checks into your 
numerically arranged file of these. Strap to the pile 
(or such part of it as is to be kept at hand) the slip 
giving data of the unreturned checks. When the next 
statement comes, if any of these checks are still out, 
you will not need to look back to find out why the bank 
balance is larger by that amount. It is not often neces- 
sary to refer to returned checks. Tie them (still in 
numerical order) into packages by years, with the year 
plainly marked on top. If you have plenty of storage 
space you may like to keep them for years, but they 
are valueless after a certain time, that time depending 
on the legal limit of the state for the collection of debts. 
Say this is 7 years. Then when you add the 1922 checks 
to the file, you can safely throw away those for 1915. 



178 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

This mechanical check on stored matter saves time as 
well as storage space, since the" file never needs to be 
looked over. 

The method described is the simplest one, suflSeient 
for the average family. The better way from the legal 
point of view is to paste each returned check to its 
stub, and to keep the whole book. The stub has a 
repetition of the check items, and both are original 
records. Having such a record in duplicate is better 
evidence than half of it alone. The legal limitation as 
to collection of debts does not apply to a suit on the 
ground of fraud, but fortunately few families are sub- 
jected to such suits. 

If the simpler form is followed, the check-book stubs 
should be kept only if they offer any information not 
on the Accounts cards. Otherwise they can be thrown 
away after a brief period, say those from one cheek-book 
when the next has been completely filled, so that its 
stubs are ready for filing. 

Exchange is often charged by banks for cashing 
checks on out-of-town banks, unless these are in one of 
the financial centers. In order to be sure that the out- 
of-town recipient will receive the full amount paid by 
the remitter, a bank draft may be used. This is the 
bank's own check, on which no exchange is charged, and 
which any bank will sell to a depositor. Drafts on for- 
eign countries, at the current rate of exchange, are also 



USING BANKS 179 

obtainable through the bank and are often the most 
economical way of sending money to another country. 

A certified check is one that is taken to the bank 
cashier for certification before being paid out. The 
bank sets aside the sum represented, to be paid only on 
presentation of this particular check, so that there is 
no danger of its being returned to the person who asks 
for the money, marked "No funds." Transactions be- 
tween strangers, if in large amounts, should be con- 
ducted by certified checks. 

Overdraft is a frequent occurrence in banks. Some 
depositors, especially business men, may overdraw de- 
liberately, knowing that funds will soon come in to set 
their accounts straight. If the depositor of a personal 
or household account overdraws, it is usually through 
inadvertence. The check-book shows a larger balance 
than the bank ledger, because the depositor has made 
a mistake in addition or subtraction. The first time 
a customer overdraws, the bank takes no other step 
than to notify the depositor courteously and ask for 
immediate deposit to cover the deficit. If a depositor 
continues to overdraw, he or she is usually warned by 
the bank that no further overdraft will be allowed. This 
means that the next time a check is presented calling 
for a larger amount than the depositor's balance, it will 
not be honored. That is, it will not be cashed, but 
returned to the presenter marked "No funds" or "Insuf- 



180 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

ficient funds," A cbeck is "protested" wben protest is 
entered before a notary public, in 'whicb case tbe drawer 
must pay tbe notary's fee. A depositor wbo overdraws 
bas poor credit witb a bank, and tbis affects bis or ber 
credit everywbere. 

Endorsing a cbeck means receipting for it. Tbe per- 
son to wbom it is drawn lays tbe cbeck on tbe desk or 
table, turns it toward bim face down, and writes bis or 
ber name across tbe back of tbe cbeck, near tbe left 
band end. Writing tbe name elsewbere increases the 
work of tbe bank. Tbe name must be written as it ap- 
pears on tbe face of tbe cbeck, and wbere tbere is any 
inaccuracy except tbe omission of an initial, tbe name 
sbould be written accurately undemeatb. To use tbe 
example given before, M. L. Anderson or Mary Ander- 
son needs no furtber comment, but if tbe otber mistakes 
are made, tbe endorsement sbould read 

Mary L. Andersen 
{Mary L. Anderson) 

Marie Anderson 
(Mary L. Anderson) 

Wben the person to wbom tbe cbeck is made wishes to 
deposit it to bis bank account, he endorses 

Pay to Blanh National Banh or order 
John M. Jones 



USING BANKS 181 

If lie wishes to pay it to some person or firm for goods 
received, he should endorse to that firm: 

Pay to 

Black, Green and Brown or order 
John M. Jones 

If the words "or order" (or "to the order of," which 
form is also used) are not added, the endorsement is 
restrictive, and strictly speaking the payee can obtain 
the money only at the bank on which the check is drawn. 
Although banks are not strict in exacting this, the 
proper form should be used as a matter of good business 
habit. The receiver must write his own signature as the 
receipt for the check. If the check is endorsed at first 
only with Jones's name, he may have no proof that he 
paid it to Black, Green and Brown. 

Checks drawn to "Bearer" are the same as cash, as 
they are cashed on any one's endorsement. They are 
rarely advisable, except when one wishes to procure 
cash in return for one. 

Joint Account. This means an account on which 
two or more people, usually husband and wife or busi- 
ness partners, have an equal right to draw. The ac- 
count is opened by both together and either signature is 
enough on a check. Many recommend this type of ac- 
count for the family, husband and wife drawing equally 
against it. If a minimum deposit is required, there is a 



183 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

money saving in having only one account, but from 
every other point of view this is a poor method. 
It is much more difficult to keep the record of the 
account straight when two people are using it. There 
is a general belief that there is an advantage in a 
joint account in case of the death of one of the par- 
ties to it, on the ground that the money is still available 
to the other. This belief is founded on tradition, not 
on present day fact. In all but a very few of the states 
on the death of one of the parties to a joint account the 
luhole deposit is considered the property of the de- 
ceased, and the survivor cannot draw against it. Usu- 
ally permission can be obtained from the proper state 
official for the survivor to use the account, but inheri- 
tance tax must be paid on the Avhole sum. If the amount 
is divided equally in two accounts under the two names, 
the survivor not only has the money in his or her ac- 
count available as usual, but loses only half as much 
by payment of inheritance tax. 

Trust Accounts have the same disadvantages as 
joint accounts, and are therefore not advised. 

Safety deposit departments are maintained by many 
banks, where for a few dollars a year a box can be rented 
that is as near perfect security as anything earthly can 
be, where family papers of importance, insurance poli- 
cies, bonds and the like can be kept. A small amount 
of jewelry can be stored in such a box, and there are 



USING BANKS 183 

larger ones to be rented for more jewelry, silver and 
other valuables. The box is accessible to the authorized 
person or persons at any time during banking hours, 
and its use may save serious loss. It should be noted 
that there is the same disadvantage in holding a safety 
deposit box jointly that there is with the joint bank 
account. On the death of any person who has the right 
to open the box, the whole contents of the box are con- 
sidered the property of the deceased, and sealed by the 
proper official. The survivor must prove title to any 
of the contents of the box that he claims. 

After the initial visit to open a checking bank ac- 
count, it is not necessary to go in person to a bank to 
continue as a depositor there. All the business can be 
conducted by mail, checks being deposited by letter, 
cash by registered letter, and the checks drawn to Self 
or Bearer being cashed at some office or store where one 
is known. It is therefore not necessary to change banlcs 
when one moves to some distance. But there is a great 
advantage in being personally known to the bank offi- 
cials, since personal acquaintance always makes coopera- 
tion easier. And although any bank officer will give 
advice as to investments to any depositor, it is only 
human that he should take a little more trouble for 
one with whom he has a pleasant acquaintance. As is 
pointed out in the next chapter, bankers are excellent 



184 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

advisers as to safe investments. They tend to be con- 
servative, which is very helpful to most would-be in- 
vestors. And every depositor has a right to ask his own 
bank for help. 



XV 

SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS 

One of the real tragedies of human life is the loss of 
money that has been saved by constant care in the use 
of one's resources, by deprivation and even by privation. 
To go without this or that much-desired pleasure or 
luxury for years, in order to have a little stored away 
against old age, and then to see it all swept away in a 
moment, not only discourages one with saving but even 
with life. 

It is because putting money in banks or investing in 
some other way has so often resulted in total loss that 
the temptation of the small saver, ignorant of the way to 
choose a safe form of storage under the supervision of 
some one else, is to hoard the actual cash in an old stock- 
ing, a discarded teapot, a hole under a loose board in 
the floor, in the mattress or in some other of the tra- 
ditional places for this purpose. The double disadvan- 
tage of this method is the loss of interest and the dan- 
ger of loss by fire or thieves. Thieves, to be sure, work 
in equally eifective ways to steal the money when it is 
invested, but there are still ways to keep the money 
much more safely than is possible to the individual. 

185 



186 GETTING YOUR MONEY^S WORTH 

Cash can of course be kept in a safety deposit box, but 
then the "money is not working." This is a loss not 
only to the individual (of interest) but to the commun- 
ity, since money is needed as capital, to develop agricul- 
ture, industry and commerce. 

The two unquestionably safe investments are sav- 
ings banks and government bonds (nation, state or city). 
But even here there are warnings to give. The bank 
should be one that is under state supervision. Many pri- 
vate banks have conducted their transactions with scru- 
pulous honesty and excellent judgment, proving as safe 
as any state or national bank. On the other hand, the 
sum is appalling of the losses suffered by those who 
trusted their money to some individual banker, well- 
known in the community and fully trusted by every 
one. A state or a national bank may, in the picturesque 
phrase used to express failure, close its doors, but this 
is becoming increasingly more rare, as the government 
watches more closely to prevent such a catastrophe. A 
savings bank is limited by law in the amount it may 
receive from one depositor. $3,000 is a common limit. 
But the person or the family who has nothing in the 
world to fall back on but that amount would do well 
to divide even that sum among three or four banks, 
to lessen the risk of possible loss. 

The interest on savings bank deposits is rarely more 
than 4%, but there are few communities where there 



SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS 187 

is no bank available that pays as much as this. If there 
is no savings bank at all in the town, or one paying 
only 3%, it is always possible to open an account in a 
bank in another town or city, depositing by money order 
or check. It is harder to withdraw money immediately 
in case of emergency, but that is not always a dis- 
advantage. And there is always some one in the town 
who will lend money needed in this way, when it can 
be got from the bank in a few days. 

Except in the few cases of unstable government, the 
bonds of a nation, a county, or a municipality are secure 
as far as loss from default goes, but unless they are 
registered — that is, appear on a government register as 
the property of the individual — they are negotiable, 
which means that they are easily converted into cash 
by the person who steals them. They must therefore be 
kept in a safety deposit box for security. If they are 
destroyed by fire and are registered, duplicates can be 
obtained, but if not registered and lost or stolen, there 
is seldom any redress. When such a loss occurs, how- 
ever, the loser should go at once to the local banker or 
lawyer to see whether he can hope to recover anything. 
The governmental body issuing the bonds does not 
always provide for registration. 

Until recent years government bonds have been con- 
sidered an investment that was safe, to be sure, but 
not a profitable one as far as interest goes. Usually this 



188 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

was no more than the 4% of the savings bank, and often 
it was less. But since the European war has forced most 
of the nations of the world to huge debts, the rate of 
interest has risen, and manj bonds of European coun- 
tries or cities are available that bear a large interest 
on their face — as high as 8% — and which actually bring 
higher interest because they are sold below j)ar; that 
is a $100 bond costs less than $100. The income from 
such bonds is not tax exempt, but any banker will be 
able to give a depositor the figures of real return on one 
bond as compared with the other. The securities of 
any stable government are literally secure, since the 
honor and credit of the government are back of them. 
To many investment in foreign bonds seems forbid- 
dingly complicated, because in cashing each coupon one 
must fill out a form for the U. S. Government, but any 
ordinarily intelligent person can soon learn to do this 
correctly, and the small amount of time involved can 
be counted as money-earning if the investment brings 
a higher interest than those with less troublesome ways 
of collecting the money. 

The interest on bonds is collected by cutting off the 
little strip of paper attached to the bond that is called 
a coupon. The date at which this may be turned into 
money is printed plainly on the coupon. The owner 
should cash the coupon as soon as possible after it is 
due, in order to have the full use of his money. When 



SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS 189 

the family or the individual has a number of such bonds, 
with interest falling due at different dates, there should 
be a list on a card showing date due, type of bond, 
amount to be collected. This will call attention to the 
time of collection, which is also the time of the receipt 
of income from this source. This card is kept in the 
Accounts file. 

The full list of the family investments is made in 
general on the Assets card, but all bonds or other securi- 
ties bearing serial numbers should be listed on a spe- 
cial card, giving the name of bond, rate of interest, 
amount and serial number. It is highly advisable to 
have a duplicate of this list kept outside the home in 
a safe place. If no other is available, use the home of 
a trusted relative or friend, asking him to put the 
sealed envelope with the record, plainly marked outside 
"Property of John M. Jones, deposited with L. P. 
Green and to be returned by him on demand to John 
M. Jones or his heirs," and the date. Then in case 
of destruction of the original list by fire, water or other 
form of loss, the second is available. All this may 
seem ridiculously detailed, but when one has money one 
has also care. It is the price of keeping it. 

Investments in other securities than those of gov- 
ernments may be advisable, but they should never be 
made without the advice of experts. The banker is 
perhaps the best, but often one knows and trusts a busi- 



190 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

ness man whose advice will be equally valuable. To 
ask several people of good judgment is better than to 
ask one. Many people hesitate to ask advice either 
because they think tie matter too small and too per- 
sonal to bother a busy man about or because they are re- 
luctant to violate secrecy regarding their own affairs. 
The first reason is not a good one, since it is part of 
the banker's business to give such advice and it is part 
of the community service that any business man worth 
consulting is only too glad to render. The second reason 
is equally bad. If money is stored as coin or bills in 
the old teapot, secrecy is certainly advisable, as knowl- 
edge of it might lead to loss by theft. But there is noth- 
ing in invested money that needs to be concealed. Its 
existence cannot be concealed from the income tax man 
without perjury. And the banker regards confidential 
statements from his clients just as the physician or the 
lawyer does. The business man who having been con- 
sulted in confidence would tell his friends that John 
Jones had $300 to invest would not be asked for advice 
many times. Yet either banker or business man may 
be justified in saying that he is sure that John Jones's 
credit is good when he is asked about him. 

Building and Loan Associations offer excellent op- 
portunities when their management is safeguarded by 
the state, since they pay good interest and make pro- 
vision for lending to holders of shares. But there have 



SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS 191 

been serious losses in some associations of this kind, 
and one should make sure of the standing and security of 
any in which one invests. Credit Unions with similar 
privileges exist in some states. 

Any security which is a legal investment for a sav- 
ings bank is of course a safe investment. But one 
should make sure that the security is so listed. 

The name of the owner should never be written on 
the bond. If this is done in pencil, it is usually possible 
so to erase it as to conceal the fact that it has been 
marked, but writing in ink cannot be so erased. A 
"marked bond" has a lower market value than the same 
bond unmarked. Where bonds belonging to different 
members of the family are kept together, it is easy to 
distinguish ownership by having a list of the serial 
numbers of the bonds belonging to each. In a safety 
deposit box it is well to put the bonds belonging to 
each person in an envelope plainly marked "Property 
of — owner," with a list of the serial numbers and 
amounts below. 

In buying any kind of bond the possibility of forced 
sale must be kept in mind. A bond bought at a price 
that means good interest m^y bring a lower price still 
if the owner has to part with it at a given time, and 
this price may mean that the bond has been a less prof- 
itable investment than the savings bank would prove. 
Every family should have a cash reserve available, ordi- 



192 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

narily in the savings bank, before buying the securities 
that are profitable when one can keep them and not 
profitable when one must part with them. For a tem- 
porary need of cash it is often better to borrow than to 
sell. Any bank lends on securities to any depositor in 
whose need and judgment they can feel confidence. 

The truth of this last paragraph has been brought 
home to thousands of Americans and going-to-be-Ameri- 
cans in the last few years. Often at a great sacrifice 
they subscribed to Liberty Bonds at par — $100 for a 
$100 bond. They were incited by patriotism, but were 
told over and over again, with the authority of the 
government, that they were also profiting themselves. 
They put all they could scrape together into the bonds, 
often taking money they had in the savings banks. Then 
came a period of business depression, of unemployment 
and of high prices that drove them to sell their bonds to 
provide the necessities of life for their families. And 
thousands had to sell when they received only $83 for 
their $100. That was a stunning loss. To the more 
ignorant it seemed that they had been cheated by the 
United States Government. The government is justi- 
fied in calling the bonds a good investment if and when 
those bonds can be held by the buyer until maturity. 
Then, at the date given on the bond, the government 
will pay the full $100. But it is hard to prove to the 
one who has had to sell at a sacrifice that the invest- 



SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS 193 

ment "was a profitable one. Undoubtedly the experience 
will discourage many of them from ever purchasing such 
a "safe" bond again. 

Many of these people, if they are not entirely discour- 
aged from investment, will turn to the securities offer- 
ing a chance of very large profit. If they may lose their 
savings anyway, why not get good return while they 
have them? This is another opportunity for that des- 
picable group who make their living by selling to the 
people eager to get large returns and ignorant as to safe 
or doubtful financial methods, securities that are or prob- 
ably will become valueless or at least of small value. 
The men who make such fraud the business of their 
lives know about how much money they can hope to get 
from a given section of the country in a given year. 
They know how to find the widow left with a life insur- 
ance paid in cash, the elderly woman or man who has 
just sold out a little retail business in order to retire, 
the inexperienced boy or girl who in the first few years 
of wage-earning has saved $500 as the basis of a for- 
tune. They will tell you perhaps that these "gulls" all 
deserve to lose their money because they are fools and 
greedy. Some one will get it anyway, because they are 
bound to get a higher return in interest than is pos- 
sible except by hard work or exceptional luck. 

It is true that there are few of us who do not want to 
get more than we really earn. Some day we may reach 



194 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETPI 

the moral height where we are unwilling to take more 
than a legitimate return for our work or for the work- 
income that we have stored up in savings. But now 
we remember the tale of this man or that woman who 
invested a few hundreds in some world-famous business 
just at the beginning and without any work or even 
thought on his or her part now finds the investment 
worth thousands and bringing in a good income. Great 
luck. Yes, and a discourager of the toil by which the 
great mass of mankind must earn their living. The 
man who puts his money, his intelligence, his ability, 
his time, his very life into his business fairly earns a 
large profit: the stockholder who profits by work in 
which he does not share — profits beyond a reasonable in- 
terest on his money — is getting a return for luck, just 
as the gambler gets his. 

Long ago the wise Mr. Dooley bade Mr. Hennessy 
remember that "Whin a man gets more than 6% f'r 
his money it's a thousan' to wan he's payin' it himsilf." 
He meant, of course, that the larger interest was 
paid at the risk of depreciation or loss of the principal. 
Mr. Dooley would raise the sum to 8% now, perhaps to 
10%, but the principal back of his first remark is un- 
changed. There is a limit at which investment becomes 
speculation, and speculation is not a legitimate use of 
savings. The banker and the sound business man will 



SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS 195 

not advise you to try to get 100% interest on oil stock, 
or 40% on a rubber stock. They may prevent your 
making some sum of money; by and large they will 
surely prevent your losing more than that sum. 

Before a discussion of saving by insurance must come 
one regarding the purpose of saving. This has been 
touched on already, but the subject will bear some 
repetition and fuller discussion. Savings may be for 
an emergency fund, as provision for a special purpose 
like the college education of a child or a longed-for trip 
to Thibet, or they may be to provide an income for the 
non-earning period of later years. Saving for emer- 
gencies has already been dealt with and its importance 
urged. Such a fund is best placed in a savings bank or 
in some security on which cash can be obtained readily 
when the emergency arises. If the fund is not used, it 
is of course eventually added to the savings for other 
purposes. If it must be drawn on, the money taken 
should be considered a loan and returned to the fund 
when payment is possible. It should not be hard for 
the individual or the family to decide what is a fair 
amount for such an emergency fund. If the possibility 
of drawing on savings in an emergency is not kept in 
mind, it is a discouragement when the savings that 
one had thought of as provision for other purposes have 
to be used to pay doctors and nurses. "What is the 



196 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WOETH 

use of saving ? The money goes just like other money/* 
This is only a matter of psychology, but so are many of 
the important things in life. 

Savings for a special purpose are easily administered. 
The sum once decided on, and the probable date of use 
calculated, there only remains the choice of a safe in- 
vestment that can be turned into cash at the proper 
time. Even when the amount of the fund is indefinite, 
as may be when one decides to make a given fund "as 
large as possible," the conditions are the same. 

Saving to provide an income for the non-earning 
years brings up many questions. How long is the period 
of earning? If it may be to 65, do you nevertheless 
wish to stop or lessen work at 60 or 55 ? Will the 
earning power as expressed in the income increase up 
to that point ? If not, up to what point ? Should you 
plan to save a larger proportion of your income at any 
given period ? Is part of the provision for your old 
age to be in your children? If so, how much? How 
many must the income from savings provide for ? Have 
you any obligation to provide an income for wife, chil- 
dren, an old mother, or any one, in case of your death 
before the earning period is over ? Do you wish to live 
on the same scale as at present? This seems a bewil- 
dering list, yet the answers to most of the questions are 
easy, and none are very hard. The individual or 
family after answering them can calculate how much 



SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS 197 

must be saved each year so that at the end of the time 
the income will be what is needed. 

Life insurance offers methods of saving for more 
purposes than are often considered by those outside in- 
surance work. The young married man dependent on 
current earnings takes a "straight" life insurance, on 
which he pays a yearly premium of a comparatively 
small sum, and on which no money is paid except at 
his death, when his wife, or any one to whom he assigns 
it, receives it all. The parents who are concerned as to 
college for their boy or girl, may take out for either a 
twenty-year endowment insurance policy, requiring an 
annual payment of a proportionately larger sum, but 
the "whole amount of the insurance being re- 
ceived at the end of the twenty years. The man (or 
woman) who is not in a family partnership and whose 
obligation is only to himself in his old age, takes out 
an income bond, on which he makes annual payments 
until he is fifty, or fifty-five, or sixty or what not. At 
the end of the time agreed in the contract of the bond, 
he receives an annuity, a fixed yearly income, paid in 
monthly instalments to the end of his life. These are 
three of many forms. Any life insurance company will 
tell of many others. Insurance agents are noted for 
persuasiveness, and it is well to check their recommenda- 
tions by the advice of the banker or the experienced 
friend, especially as all of them do not always remem- 



198 GETTING YOUE MONEY'S WORTH 

Ler differences in purpose. The details of life insur- 
ance are voluminous — ^the amount one may borrow, and 
the conditions of a loan, the "redemption value," or 
the amount one receives if one wishes to give up the 
arrangement, the "disability clause" that for some 
added payment offers some income in case of accident 
or prolonged illness. Every one should know some- 
thing of the possibilities of insurance that means in- 
come, as well as of insurance against damage and loss. 
It is to be noted that the old discrimination against 
women by charging higher rates to them is rapidly dis- 
appearing. No woman need insure in a company that 
still makes such charges. 

The "income bond" deserves, however, especial recom- 
mendation to the self-supporting woman who does not 
see any possibility of saving enough to provide an in- 
come for her years of retirement from active paid 
work. If she does accumulate enough, it is usually at 
the expense of her present comfort and on a basis that 
means only meager living. If she puts the same 
amount into an income bond she has a safe and steady 
income which no one can cheat her out of or lure away 
from her. The old lady who receives a hundred dol- 
lars on the first day of every month and to whom the 
payment is guaranteed up to the very last month 
of her life is independent and self-respecting and com- 
mands respect in others as far as financial standing 



SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS 199 

goes. And thousands of women who could easily from 
their present earnings provide themselves with that in- 
come at sixty will find themselves instead at that age 
with no more than a few thousands which even if 
invested to the best possible advantage, will bring 
in only four or five hundred dollars a year. In taking 
an income bond one of course gives up the money paid 
in (unless one withdraws the arrangement or dies be- 
fore the annuity is paid) and cannot leave it to others 
when death puts an end to one's use of it. It is there- 
fore not a right method for those who have an obliga- 
tion to others that should be met in the form of a 
legacy. 

Insurance companies are now generally as closely 
supervised by the state as are the banks. They 
are safe, as far as human institutions can be safe. 
It is unwise to insure in a company not under super- 
vision. The contract with an insurance company is 
called a policy, and each payment is a premium. A 
beneficiary is the person to whom the money is to be 
paid in case of the death of the insured person. 

Pensions paid by governments or institutions are a 
form of provision for the non-earning years that the in- 
dividual may find open to him. They need no consider- 
ation here. 

Saving through payments to fraternal societies or 
orders is also not dealt with here, as these are of too 



200 GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH 

many types. Some are excellent, yet there have been 
serious losses through others. The expert should be 
consulted, unless sharing in them is primarily a mat- 
ter of loyalty. Even when it is, there may be a choice 
between putting all or only part of one's savings into 
the one form of investment.' 

Family savings are best invested divided between 
husband and wife, or brother and sister. Joint invest- 
ments have the same disadvantages as joint bank ac- 
counts. On the death of one person concerned they are 
treated as the sole property of the deceased, and the 
inheritance tax must be paid on the full amount. 

One word as to the making of wills. Every person 
who has any property at all should make a will, under 
the direction of a lawyer. The settlement of an estate 
of even a few hundred dollars is much easier if there 
is a will, and the property goes to the persons or insti- 
tutions that the owner of it wishes to have it. It is 
unwise to appoint a single individual as executor (the 
person who sees that the will is carried into effect), 
although a Trust Company may safely be so appointed. 
The individual dies, perhaps before his work as ex- 
ecutor is done ; the Trust Company does not die. 

The economist who cries "Save!" to every one is 
right, where the income allows more than the bare 
necessities, and is still a moderate one. The person 
living on income from investments needs to save an 



SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS 201 

emergency fund, at least in the earlier years, to be 
drawn on in years when the investments fail to bring 
in the regular income. Every one needs to save an 
emergency fund for any imperative call on the in- 
come that demands a considerable sum but is not pro- 
vided for in the budget. Those who live on current 
earnings, whether these are wages, salaries, profits or 
fees, need to make some provision for an income when 
the annual earned income dwindles or ceases. But 
next to the exhortation "Save !" comes "Invest your 
savings wisely!" If the second precept is not kept 
in mind the first may in the end prove useless. 



XVI 
THE RESULT 

It would be pleasant to promise, as the old saw does 
so glibly to those who go early to bed and are early to 
rise, that the making of a budget and the checking of 
it by accounts would make every one "healthy, wealthy 
and wise." But that would be to promise too much. 
Certainly one should be nearer "wealthy" and "wise," 
at least, if one has been faithful to the plan, but the 
budget is not a panacea, or any form of magic, white 
or black. It cannot make possible to us the spending 
all the money we would like, or the getting from the 
money we have all that we desire. But it can give 
us the satisfaction that comes from any application 
of intelligence to an important problem. 

The plea of this book is that accounts (in conjunc- 
tion with a budget) are interesting, even entertaining to 
keep and to study. But they cannot be either for the 
person who refuses to find any interest in the considera- 
tion of how best to use his or her resources. There is 
no question that "you get your money's worth" to a 
greater extent with a plan than without, but not if 

202 



THE KESULT 203 

the plan is made reluctantly and looked on as an ogre 
that threatens to kill pleasure whenever he sees it. 

Further than this, those who plan and spend for 
purely selfish ends — just to get the best food and 
clothing and shelter and fun for themselves out of their 
dollars and cents — defeat their own end as they seek 
happiness. They are not the happy folk, even if every 
penny has bought just what they wanted it to buy. 
Planning a budget — the way one family or individual 
is to use the power latent in bill and coin — is a process 
"that affects society far beyond the walls of the house 
in which it is jDlanned. It is the social aspect that 
gives the budget its great importance. But fortunately 
this is a case where two ends may be attained by the 
same means. The kind of planning and of carrying 
out the plan that is most profitable to society as a whole 
is the same kind that brings to those who plan the 
rewards for which they may reasonably hope. 



INDEX 



Ability, as asset, 125 
Accounts, 85-108 

reason for, 6, 85 

basis for budget, 19 

classification, 27, 31 

headings, 29-31 

subheads, 29-31, 98 

summary, 38 (illus.), 40, 107 

card form, 82, 93. 05, 96 (il- 
lus.), 98, 99 (illus.), 101- 
03, 104 (illus.), 108 (il- 
lus.) 

balancing, 86-87, 109-10 

interesting, 88 

itemized, 88 

information given by, 88-89 

checking with budget, 89-90 

forms, 92 

loose leaf, 93 

cash record, 94 

entering items, 95, 102-06 

box for cards, 101 

monthly payment list, 110-11 

simpler for individual, 151 

children's, 153-55 

checkbook, and, 173 
Allowance 

for wife, 14 

for household, 13, 14 

children, 14, 58, 152-62 

automobile, 15, 58 

for husband, 71 
Ambition, social, 130-31 
Annuity, 197-99 
Apprentices 

children as, 13, 17, 152 
Assessments, 42 
Asset, conserving as, 133-42 
Assets list, 19 

how to make, 20 

card, 23 (illus.), 100. 107, 
189 



Association dues, 73 
Automobile, 14, 15, 58-59, 117 



Balance 

accounts, 86-87, 110 

bank, 175-76 
Bank account 

joint, 181-82 

trust, 182 
Bank account (checking), 163 

for children, 160 

advantages, 165 

cost of carrying, 166, 175, 
181 

to establish, 167 

deposits, 170, 173, 175, 180, 
182 

overdrawing, 179-80 
Bank checks, 102 

as receipts, 110, 177-78, 180 

convenient, 165 

signature, 167 

form of book, 168 

counter cheek, 169 

numbering, 169 

stubs, 169, 172, 174, 175, 178 

how to write, 170-72 

raising, 171-72 

entered on accounts. 173 

returned by bank, 174 

exchange on, 175, 178-79 

cashing promptly, 177 

keeping, 177-78 

certified, 179 

protested, 180 

endorsing, 180-81 
Bank draft, 178 
Bank statemc^nt 

checking up, 174-76 
Banker as adviser. 183, 190, 
197, 200 



205 



206 



INDEX 



Banks, 163-84 

types, 163 

Hee also yavings banks 
Bathrobe, 48 
Beauty, 7 

Bedmakiiig, 125, 128-29, 130 
Belt, 48 
Bonds, 79, 182 

listing, 20, 100, 189, 191 

depreciation, 21 

government, 186, 187-88, 192 

loss of, 187 

coupons, 188 

interest on, 188 

marked, 191 

forced sale, 191, 192 
Bonds, income, 197-99 
Books, 59, 74-75 

inventory, 146 
Borrowing, 5, 6 

on securities, 192 
Box budget system, 26 
Box for account cards, 101 
Boys. See Children 
Budget 

definition, 1 

limits, 3, 36-37, 158 

purpose, 3-4, 85-86, 132 

personal matter, 7 

importance, 8-9, 85-86, 203 

who makes, 16-17 

children assisting, 17, 35-36, 
91, 120 

how make, 19-40, 79 

accounts as basis, 19 

for what period, 24-25 

date of beginning, 25 

time to make, 25, 107 

form, 26, 28, 38 (illus.) 

envelope or box system, 26 

readjusting, 27, 35, 37, 56, 67, 
113-22 

headings discussion, 28-29 

headings advised, 29-31 

will not balance, 37 

card, 38 (illus.), 99 

checking up, 89-90, 120 

adding summary, 107 

individual, 148-51 

children miking own, 152, 
156, 159, 160 



Budget 

result of, 202-03 
Building and Loan, 190 
Business 

uses money, 2 

household as, 12 

wife's knowledge, 16 
Business man as adviser, 190, 

197, 200 
Business obligations, 73-74 



Candles, 70 

Candlesticks and shades, 70 

Candy, 44 

Canning, 44-45 

Cards, account, 82, 93, 95, 96 
(illus.), 98, 99 (illus.), 
101-03, 104 (illus.), 108 
(illus.) 

Care of house, 35, 55-57, 67, 68, 
80, 135-38 
card, 108 (illus.) 

Carfare, 41, 74, 84, 95 

Carpenter, 127 

Cash record, 94 

Cash vs. credit, pref. 

Chauffeur, 58, 80 

Clieck-book. See Bank checks 

Checking 

accounts, budget, 89-90, 

120 
bank statement, 174-76 

Checks. See Bank checks 

Children 

as apprentices, 13, 17, 152 
allowances, 14, 58, 152-62 
helping with budget, 17, 35- 

36, 91, 120 
knowledge of limits, 17-18 
near school, 41 
recreation, 59-60, 155 
increasing income, 118-19 
labor income of, 126-30 
problems of, 131 
training the, 152-62 
paid for work, 153 
accounts kept by, 153-55 
budget by, 152, 156, 159-60 
selecting clothing, 156-57, 
159-60 



INDEX 



201 



Choice 

budget affects, 4-5 
Chores, 126 

Cigarettes, Cigars. See To- 
bacco 
Classification, 28 
Cleaning. See Care of House 
Cleaning, dry, 48, 68 
Clothing, 4, 7, 14, 33, 35, 45- 
55, 67, 68, 70, 71, 83, 114, 
117, 122, 150 
purpose of, 45 
ideal, 46 
net cost, 48, 69 
care of, 40-50, 133-35 
silk, 17, 50, 69, 122, 134 
making at home, 51, 131 
money tied up, 51 
inventory, 53, 144 
budget, 54 (illus.), 55 
insurance, 55 
account, 98, 104 (illus.), 

106 
children selecting, 156-57, 
159-60 
Club dues, 61 
Collars, 51, 69 
Commissions, income from, 27, 

165 
Community service, 36, 62, 65, 

140, 150-51, 186, 190, 203 
Conserving, 49-50, 133-42 
Convention attendance, 73 
Conventions, social, 8, 18, 114 
Cooperation 

in family, 11-12, 17, 119, 127, 

130, 153, 161 
in community, 36, 62-65, 140, 
150-51, 186, 190, 203 
Cosmetics, 83 
Cotton, 134 
Credit unions, 191 
Credit vs. cash, pref. 

Daily balance, 86 
Debts, 24, 59, 77 
Depreciation charge, 146 
Desires, as affecting budget, 3, 

9, 35-36, 120-21 
Dishwashing. 125, 128-29 
Doilies, 138-39 



Dooley, quoted, 194 
Dues, 61, 73 

Economy, 141 
definition, 6 
Edgeworth, Maria, quoted, 

157 
Education, 15, 59 
borrowing for, 6 
Electricity, 69, 120 
Emergencies, 118-19 

saving for, 7, 77-78, 114, 195- 

96, 201 
Energy, use of, 123-25 
Entertainment, 15, 00-61, 66, 

71, 73, 150 
Envelope budget system, 26 
Equipment. See Furnishings 
Executor, 200 
Experience, as asset, 125 
Express, 61-62 
l"]xtravagance, 5, 8, 69, 124 

Family 

aim, 2, 10 

definition, 11 

as business, 12 
Father. See Husband 
Fire Insurance. See Insurance, 

Fire 
Fishing, 75 
Flowers, 57 

Food, 33. 42-45, 62, 67, 80, 84, 
95, 150 

values, 43 

card (illus.) , 10a 
Fraternal orders, 199-200 
Freight, 61-62 
Fuel, 62, 68, 69-70, 150 
Furnishings, 35, 56 

insurance, 55, 57 

care, 135-39 

inventory, 144-47 
Furs, 122, 144 

Garage, 58 

Gas, 69. 126 

Gifts (Church, etc.), 15, 62-65, 

121, 155 
Gifts (Personal), 15, 62, 65-66, 

156 



208 



INDEX 



Girls. See Children 

Gloves, 48 

Guide cards, 98, 99 (illus.), 100 

Handyman, 126-27 
Happiness 

aim of family, 2, 10 
Hats, 122 

card (illus.), 104 
Head of family, 11 
Headings, 29-31, 98, 100 
Health, 66-67 

aim of family, 2 

call on savings, 6, 66-67, 1 14 

insurance, 67, 198 
House, 122 

owned, 33, 42, 56, 78, 83 

rented. 33, 42 

care of. See Care of House 
Household employee, 41, 80-82, 
129-30 

industrial basis, 81 
Husband 

as partner, 13, 15 

as income-earner, 14 

as investor, 14-15 

expenditure, 71-72 

bank account, 182 

Ice, 43 

Ideals, budget shows, 9, 35, 40, 

203 
Income 

to obtain what, 1, 2, 5 

limits, 3 

loss or decrease, 7, 113-17, 

130 
earning and spending, 13 
belongs to, 13, 14 
knowledge of sources, 13 
for budget, 26-27 
irregular, 27-28, 164-65 
from owned house, 42 
card, 96 (illus.), 99-100 
increase in, 118, 120-22 
besides money, 123-32 
labor, 125-32 

Income bond, 197-99 

Income tax, 34, 82, 100, 167, 
190 



Individual budget, 148-51 
Inheritance tax, 182, 200 
Insurance, 34, 37, 55, 57, 67- 
68, 135, 182 

fire, 42, 55, 57, 67, 144, 147 
Insurance, life, 79, 197-99 

amount saved, 22 

endowment, 197 

income bond, 197-99 

women, 198-99 
Interest 

on debts, 59 

on savings, 167, 186-87, 193- 
95 
Inventories, 137, 143-47 

value in assets, 22 

headings, 144 

how to make, 144-46 
Investments, 5, 15-16. 59, 185- 
201 

who makes, 15-16 

list of, 20, 189 

asking advice on, 189-90, 197, 
200 

expecting large returns, 193- 
95 

joint, 200 

See also Savings and Bonds 

Janitor, 126-27 

Jewelry, 47, 70, 107, 144, 183- 

84 
Joint account, 181-82 
Joint safety-deposit, 183 

Kitchen utensils, 136-38 

Labor cost, 140-42 
Labor income, 125-32 
Lamps, lampshades, 70 
Laundry, 68-69, 80, 82, 126, 139 
Liabilities 

list. 19, 22 

card (illus.), 23 
Life insurance. See Insurance 
Light, 69-70. 150 
Lighting fixtures, 70 
Linen, 134 

Linen (household), 68-69, 138- 
39 



INDEX 



309 



Living conditions, 7, 41 

Loss 

provision for, 7 

ot position, 117 

of income, 113-17, 130 

Lost (heading), 70 

Luxuries (heading), 71 

Magazines, 59, 74 

Manicure, 83 

Man's expenditure, 71-72 

Marriage a partnership, 13 

Matches, 70 

Miscellaneous (heading), 92, 

144 
Money, uses of, 2, 131 
Monthly balance, 87 
Monthly payments list, 110-11 
Mortgage, 24, 59 
Mother. See Wife 
Moths, 134-35 
Music, 75 

JSTapkins, 138-39 
Newspapers, 59, 74, 95 
Notebooks, 94, 102 

Parcel post, 61-62, 66, 73 
Parties, 61 
Partnership 

marriage a, 13 

what this means, 14, 16 

shirking, 15 
Pensions, 199 
Percentages, learning to think 

in, 32, 86 
Percentages of budget, 34 
Perfume, 83 
Periodicals, 59, 74 
Photography, 75 
Postage, 72-73 

parcel post, 61-62, 66, 73 

letter, 72-73 

card (illus.), 96 
Powder (face), 83 
Preserving, 44-45 
Prices, rise in, 116 
Professional obligations, 73-74 
Pudding story, 9 



Reading, 59, 74, 150 
Real estate, 22, 24, 79, 83 
Receipts 

file, 110 

checks as, 165, 177-78 
Recreation, 7, 11, 15, 42, 44, 59, 

61, 75-76, 84, 150, 155 
Rent, 33, 37, 41-42, 67, 114, 118, 

121, 150 
Repairs, 126, 133, 135 

house, 42 
Reserve fund. See Savings 
Rosamond story, 157-58 
Rubber deteriorates, 134 
Rug, 136 

Safety deposit, 147, 182-83, 186, 

187, 189 
Sanitation, 7 

Savings, 15, 37, 76-80, 83, 86, 

90, 107, 110, 116, 185-201 

for emergencies, 7, 77-78, 114, 

195-96, 201 
special funds, 15, 77, 196 
amount to be saved. 34, 76, 

77-78, 121 
purposes of, 77-78, 195-99 
for future income, 77-78, 149, 

196-99, 201 
loss of, 185, 186, 201 
how invest family, 200 
Savings banks, 164, 186, 192, 
195 
using, 166-67 
interest, 167, 186-87 
Securities. See Bonds, Invest- 
ments, Savings 
Self-support, 161-62 
Servant. See Household em- 
ployee 
Service, 41, 44, 58, 68, 80-82, 84, 

150 
Sewing, 48, 51, 125 
Shampoo, 83 
Shoes, 50 

Signature (banking), 170, 180 
Silk clothing, 17, 50, 69, 122, 

134 
Soap, 68, 83 
Soft drinks, 44 



210 



INDEX 



Speculation, 21, 194 
Stationery, 73, 82 
Stockings, 48 
Stocks 

listing value, 20 
Subheads, 29-31, 98 
Summary (accounts), 40, 107 

card (illus.), 38 
Sundries ( as heading ) , 92 

Taxes, 42, 82-83 

income, 34, 82, 100 

inheritance, 182, 200 
Telegram, 83 
Telephone, 34, 83 
Time, use of, 123-25 
Tobacco, 44, 75 
Toilet, 83 
Toothbrush, 83 
Transportation, 83-84 

carfare, 41, 74, 84, 95 

other, 80, 84 
Trust account, 182 
Trust company 

account in, 163-64 

as executor, 200 

Umbrella. 48, 134 
Unemployment, 114 
provision for period of, 164 



Uniformity (social), 8 

Vacation, 42, 84 

Valuation (inventory), 145-47 

Values, 9 

Vegetable garden, 44, 80 

Waste, 13, 133, 140-42 
Weekly balance, 87, 110 
Wife 

not paid worker, 12 

as partner, 13, 15 

as spender, 13, 15, 128 

allowance, 14 

as investor, 15-16 

as earner, 126 

bank account, 182 

investments, 200 
Will, making, 200 
Wishes, story of three, 9 
Women 

as investors, 16 

knowledge of family income, 
16 

life insurance. 198 

income bond for, 198-99 

See also Wife 
Wool, 134 

Yearly balance, 87 



